Review of Gandhi (1982) by Harry E — 30 Oct 2010

I'm not going to heap accolades on this. It's just not what I go for in movies. This is a mix of biography/history (summary and vignettes), spectacle, morality play, and travelogue. It's certainly very earnest, Kingsley's good and all, and the scope is often impressive, but... it's just not cinema. It's not art. It doesn't have vision, just location photography. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that it's directed by an actor. The celebrity cameos kind of detract from the nobility of the movie's aspirations. Although I did get a kick out of seeing Michael Hordern (one of the most amazing voices I've heard; he narrated 'Barry Lyndon'), though I did not catch Dominic Guard or Daniel Day-Lewis. I guess this will do all right if you wouldn't rather read a book about Gandhi but still want to get the gist -- that is, as far as popular imagination is concerned. It is meant to have a nice message and everything, and it did make me wonder who has the reigning cosmology in the world today. On whose terms do international relations operate?

Actually, here's a thought: the narrative is framed by news commentators observing Gandhi's funeral procession. To me, they are not so different from sports commentators. Thereafter, the film presents Gandhi's life the way these news people would likely envision it. (Martin Sheen plays the main news guy in the film's main storyline.) We don't really get a cinematic narrative. The film is ultimately not so different from the way TV structures real life into digestible stories. The presentation is lofty, yet shallow at the same time.