SummaryGandhi's character is fully explained as a man of nonviolence. Through his patience, he is able to drive the British out of the subcontinent. And the stubborn nature of Jinnah and his commitment towards Pakistan is portrayed.
SummaryGandhi's character is fully explained as a man of nonviolence. Through his patience, he is able to drive the British out of the subcontinent. And the stubborn nature of Jinnah and his commitment towards Pakistan is portrayed.
What is important about this film is not that it serves as a history lesson (although it does) but that, at a time when the threat of nuclear holocaust hangs ominously in the air, it reminds us that we are, after all, human, and thus capable of the most extraordinary and wonderful achievements, simply through the use of our imagination, our will, and our sense of right.
One of the best biography epics ever made, and it is about truly one of the greatest people to have ever walked the earth in all of human history in Mahatma Gandhi. A perfectly casted and executed movie that tries in passionate earnest to respect the source material and facts about Gandhi rising from a humble lawyer, to a leader that freed India from its colonial stranglehold.
I am all for ambitious and stately films, which is why I watched Gandhi. And I like Richard Attenborough, I think not only was he a talented actor and director but his films are very interesting. Gandhi is certainly one of his more interesting films, along with the underrated Cry Freedom.
Gandhi is just a wonderful film, and do I think it's one of Attenborough's best? Along with Cry Freedom and Shadowlands, yes it is. This film is for me his most ambitious and his most stately, and it is very compelling. True, it is long and perhaps leisurely in pace, but it is well worth the watch for several reasons.
Visually it is superb to look at. It was almost like watching a David Lean film, it has the beautiful scenery, the stunning cinematography and the sweeping colours that a Lean film does. I also loved George Fenton's score, it was very epic and moving. Is it his best? Perhaps not, but it is one of his better scores. Attenborough's direction is superb, and the script is thought-provoking. The story, starting with Gandhi's assassination and told mostly in flashback, is interesting and compelling, while the acting also helps drives the film. Words cannot describe how good Ben Kingsley's performance was, composed yet inspirational, sometimes I felt as thought I was actually seeing Gandhi rather than Kingsley. In fact, this is probably the Richard Attenborough-directed film that feels the most authentic in terms of characters and story. Kingsley also gets superb support from Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud and Roshan Seth. Best scene? Lots to pick, but Gandhi's funeral was brilliantly done and one of the most emotional scenes in film and had massive scope to it.
Overall, brilliant and one of Attenborough's best. 10/10 Bethany Cox
Yes, Gandhi is a hagiography and not a nuanced, darkly shaded, or even very convincing portrait of an ambitious and deeply strange man. And as an account of the muddled, messy origins of Indian independence, the film is guilty of historical malpractice. But taken as a black-and-white morality play, Gandhi is unmatched. Simplifications and all, this is the movie my parents wanted me to see as a child—and it's the movie I'd want my own (purely theoretical) children to see as well.
Attenborough's work lacks even the undercurrent of personality that David Lean brought to his films: the film has no flavor but that of the standard Hollywood hagiography, in which the hero is rhetorically elevated to sainthood by systematically stripping him of all his psychology and inner life. Luckily, Ben Kingsley is charismatic enough in the title role to command some warmth and interest, and the film is paced so quickly—rushing through 55 years of hastily exposited history—that it's never really boring.
Neither Mr. Attenborough nor John Briley, who wrote the screenplay, are particularly adventurous filmmakers. Yet in some ways their almost obsessively middle-brow approach—their fondness for the gestures of conventional biographical cinema—seems self-effacing in a fashion suitable to the subject. Since Roberto Rossellini is not around to examine Gandhi in a film that would itself reflect the rigorous self-denial of the man, this very ordinary style is probably best.
Despite an intelligent title performance by Ben Kingsley and impressive cinematography in the manner of David Lean, this huge, clunky biopic offers less than meets the eye. Director Attenborough seeks not to understand but to canonize his subject; as a result, both Gandhi's teachings and the complexities of Indian political history are distorted and trivialized.
Though Kingsley’s saturnine poise is much more interesting in roles which call for varying degrees of slipperiness, he nevertheless manages to bring shades into the inherently monochromatic saintliness of the role with life-sized, profoundly felt gravity and dignity, all while executing that marvelous, peculiarly British trick (remember Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips) of seeming to age from within.
This film tells the life of Gandhi, a highly intelligent lawyer of British origin, which joins the Indian independence cause and plays a key role in the independence of India, after decades under British rule. Directed by Richard Attenborough, it has a screenplay by John Briley and stars Ben Kingsley in the lead role.
The film is quite honest in the picture that makes of the life and struggle of Mahatma Gandhi, father of modern India. He is portrayed as an idealistic, utopian, combative and determined to achieving his objectives in a way that he considers appropriate, without resorting to expedients that he knows are not right. An icon of passive resistance and nonviolence, Gandhi is played brilliantly by Ben Kingsley, who managed to live up to the role, giving the character a great moral force. The film catapulted him to **** in all fairness, after a great character reconstruction work (physical, mental and psychological) along several stages of his life.
The film is a classic with classical techniques. No complex special effects or anything like that. The crowds that come in some scenes, such as Gandhi's funeral, are made from real people. An effort partially forced by the absence of cheaper techniques, but compensated by giving a striking realism to the film. This realism efforts found following in costumes, filming locations and sceneries, creating an environment that transports us easily to the time and place of action. In fact, this film could almost be a documentary about Gandhi and the life and society of the British Raj era. The soundtrack is signed by Ravi Shankar, but its far from the impact and relevance of other soundtracks. Anyway, the film reached a deserved consecration, raising eight Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing and Best Costume Design).
Film makers and actors deserve 9.
I only put 7 because this film idolizes a dark personality like Gandhi (i dont think it would be easy for the producers to act differently), who surely had great sides and that s why his fame is so vivid.
In any case it s educative and you can use it as a base before a real research.
The film "Gandhi" is a biographical film, it can be placed in the category of epic drama films. These films, which are huge film projects that are made with large budgets and many large locations, are made over a long period of time. Basically, they are usually historical events or myths, and they use a lot of great actors. The special effects and stage designs are huge, and usually throughout the history of cinema, these films win awards in the fields of stage design, set design, special effects, cinematography, etc. Examples of other films in this genre include "Ben-Hur". And" Lawrence of Arabia"pointed out. Gandhi's film also won 8 Oscars.
Production Company
International Film Investors,
National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC),
Goldcrest Films International,
Indo-British Films