Gandhi (film)
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| Gandhi | |
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| Directed by | Richard Attenborough |
| Produced by | Richard Attenborough |
| Written by | John Briley |
| Starring | Ben Kingsley Rohini Hattangadi Candice Bergen Edward Fox Martin Sheen Roshan Seth |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 8, 1982 |
| Running time | 188 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $22,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Gandhi (1982) is an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winning British - Indian production, directed by Richard Attenborough, about the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as Mahatma Gandhi, Great Soul), leader of the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film won eight Oscars in 1982, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Shooting began on November 26, 1980 and ended on May 10, 1981. Coincidently, the funeral sequence was filmed on January 31, 1981, 33 years to the day after Gandhi's real funeral. Approximately 300,000 extras were used in that scene, the most for any film according to Guinness World Records[1].
The film premiered in New Delhi on November 30, 1982. It was released in the United States on December 8, 1982.
In the film, the opening shot has the following on screen message from the filmmakers:
- No man's life can be encompassed in one telling... least of all Gandhi’s, whose passage through life was so entwined with his nation’s struggle for freedom. There is no way to give each event its allotted weight, to recount the deeds and sacrifices of all the great men and women to whom he and India owe such immense debts. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record of his journey, and to try to find one's way to the heart of the man . . .
Since so much of the film was quite factual and faithful to the events surrounding the life of Gandhi, it's hard to categorize the film's plot as being a plot, since it plays out more like a chronology.
Catergorization of this film may fall under biography or documentary.
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[edit] Film Chronology
The film begins with his assassination and funeral on January 30, 1948 after a morning prayer an elder Gandhi is helped out for his morning walk to meet a large number of greeters and admirers. One of those visitors shoots him point blank. Gandhi says "Oh God" and then falls dead. Then we see a huge procession as it seems the entire country of India has turned out for the massive funeral attended to by dignitaries from around the world.
The early life of Gandhi is not seen nor mentioned, instead the story then flashes back to the first event in his life where he experienced his biggest humiliation in 1893 with him being thrown off a train in South Africa for being a "kaffir" traveling in a first class compartment. His refusal to accept that not all citizens of the British Empire are accorded full rights kicks off his first fight for freedom by using non-violent non-cooperative means. He campaigns for equal rights of all Indians in South Africa, the majority of whom are slave and hard labor workers. After numerous arrests and the unwanted attention of the world, the government finally relents by recognizing rights for Indians, though not for the native blacks of South Africa.
As an older man fresh from this victory, Gandhi is invited back to India where he has unwittingly become a hero in his home country. He is then urged to take up the fight for India's independence. Using the same tactics of non-violent non-cooperation but on an unparalleled scale with the coordination of millions of Indians nationwide, he experiences the same setbacks he faced in South Africa, imprisonment and attacks on his people.
Due to the intense world pressure, as well as a weakened British Empire because of the cost of fighting World War II, the British finally grant independence but India's problems are just beginning. Whereas the struggle for independence began with all Indians working together for freedom, the issue over who will now control India touches off violent riots between the Hindus and the Muslims with neither side willing to concede. Gandhi attempts to head off the new violence by using the only weapon he is ever willing to use, his body, in the form of a hunger strike, until all the violence in India stops.
After much violent atrocities and death committed by both sides, the fighting does eventually stop, though at a huge cost as the majority of Muslims decide to move north and form their own new country to be called Pakistan while the Hindus in that area decide to move south to greater India. This saddens Gandhi who has always dreamed of one united India. In fact, just as both India and Pakistan are celebrating their new independences, Gandhi refuses to fly either flag, instead seeing this as a failure in not being able to keep the two together. He then spends his last days trying to convince the two countries to remerge as one 'Mother India', however these actions anger many dissidents on both sides, one of whom finally gets close enough to assassinate him.
[edit] Cast
- Ben Kingsley as Gandhi
- Rohini Hattangadi as Kasturba Gandhi
- Candice Bergen as Margaret Bourke-White
- Roshan Seth as Pandit Nehru
- Om Puri as Nahari
- Saeed Jaffrey as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
- Alyque Padamsee as Mohammad Ali Jinnah
- Amrish Puri as Khan
- Martin Sheen as Vince Walker
- Ian Charleson as Reverend Charlie Andrews
- Edward Fox as Brigadier General Dyer
- Geraldine James as Mirabehn (Madeleine Slade)
- Daniel Day-Lewis as Colin
- John Gielgud as Lord Irwin
- Trevor Howard as Judge Broomfield
- John Mills as Lord Chelmsford
- Athol Fugard as Gen. Jan Christiaan Smuts
- Dalip Tahil as Zia
- Richard Leech as Brigadier
[edit] Awards
Gandhi received eight Academy Awards:
- Best Picture
- Best Actor - Ben Kingsley
- Best Director - Richard Attenborough.
- Best Art Direction - Stuart Craig, Bob Laing, Michael Seirton
- Best Cinematography - Billy Williams, Ronnie Taylor
- Best Costume Design - Bhanu Athaiya, John Mollo
- Best Editing - John Bloom
- Best Original Screenplay - John Briley
It also received nominations for:
- Best Makeup - Tom Smith
- Best Original Score - Ravi Shankar, George Fenton
- Best Sound - Gerry Humphreys, Robin O'Donoghue, Jonathan Bates, Simon Kaye
The film also won best picture awards from BAFTA and the National Board of Review as well as six Golden Globes.
[edit] Trivia
- When the movie was being planned, there was a lot of speculation as to who would play the role of Gandhi. Some Indian politicians made statements to the effect that it would be an insult to India if a foreigner were to play the role. Naseeruddin Shah, an up-and-coming Indian actor at that time, auditioned for the role but narrowly missed the opportunity. The scope for controversy diminished as Ben Kingsley, the final choice, was of Indian lineage. Interestingly enough, Shah played Gandhi in the 2000 movie Hey Ram, about a plot to assassinate Gandhi.
- The 1989 "Weird Al" Yankovic movie UHF features a parody movie trailer for Gandhi II, which portrays Gandhi as a character similar to John Shaft.
- In 1952 Gabriel Pascal secured an agreement with the Prime Minister of India Nehru to produce a film of Gandhi's life. However, Pascal died in 1954 before preparations were completed.
- David Lean and Sam Spiegel were planning to make a film about Gandhi after completing Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), reportedly with Alec Guinness as Gandhi. Ultimately the project was abandoned in favor of Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
[edit] See also
- Mahatma Gandhi (1929) An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth [1]
- Nonviolence
- List of artistic depictions of Mahatma Gandhi
[edit] References
- ^ Arts and media/Movies/Film extras. Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 2006-07-14. Retrieved on 2006-11-04.
[edit] External links
- Gandhi at the Internet Movie Database
- 4 Speeches from Movie in Text, Audio, Video from AmericanRhetoric.com
- Trailer of the movie
- Movie script
| Films directed by Richard Attenborough |
|---|
| Oh! What a Lovely War • Young Winston • A Bridge Too Far • Magic • Gandhi • A Chorus Line • Cry Freedom • Chaplin • Shadowlands • In Love and War • Grey Owl • Closing the Ring |
|
1981: Chariots of Fire | 1982: Gandhi | 1983: Terms of Endearment | 1984: Amadeus | 1985: Out of Africa | 1986: Platoon | 1987: The Last Emperor | 1988: Rain Man | 1989: Driving Miss Daisy | 1990: Dances with Wolves | 1991: The Silence of the Lambs | 1992: Unforgiven | 1993: Schindler's List | 1994: Forrest Gump | 1995: Braveheart | 1996: The English Patient | 1997: Titanic | 1998: Shakespeare in Love | 1999: American Beauty | 2000: Gladiator |
Categories: 1982 films | British films | Best Picture Academy Award winners | Black and white films | Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance | Biographical films | Mahatma Gandhi | Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe | Films over three hours long | Columbia Pictures films | Religion films | Films based on actual events
