Gandhi

Gandhi movie review, stars Ben Kingsley

Gandhi

In 1982, Gandhi The Movie won 8 Academy Awards, including:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Original Screenplay

...in one of those sentimental orgies like with Dancing With Wolves or American Beauty, when a movie touches a nerve and the Academy goes wild. I'm not saying that Gandhi didn't deserve the plaudits...it's just that 8 is a little excessive.

So, what do we have here?

Well, Ben Kingsley is simply sensational, completely believable, as Gandhi, the man who, almost singlehandedly, seemed to wrestle India back from the British for the Indians.

Beyond that, Gandhi The Movie is a 3-hour History lesson that in 2006 may make difficult viewing for a contemporary audience. It paints a picture of another time, the fifty years of the first half of the 20th Century, when political ideals the world over:

Fascism
Communism
Democracy
Capitalism
Japanese Imperialism

...seemed, to individuals as well as nations, to be worth dying for. That time is long gone and we have since passed through:

The Age of Aquarius (The Searching of The Sixties & early Seventies)
The Me Generation (The mid-seventies to late 80s)
Generation X
Generation Y &
now the as-named-by-yours-truly...Generation: "I don't care!"

...with each Age taking less and less time to complete and fundamental differences
between each of them becoming exponentially further away from the previous one. What used to be called "the generation gap", the misunderstandings between parent and child, may now be occurring between brothers and sisters!

Can a contemporary person relate to an era 4, perhaps 5, significant leaps of consciousness away...and even then, begin to understand a different culture?

Can they be inspired by a man who dedicated his life to a "philosophy" that became political...even though it had no chance of becoming politically implemented?

Perhaps...but unlikely.

Let's cut to the chase. Gandhi The Movie doesn't attempt to skirt around the fact that Gandhi eventually considered his life and mission, a failure. He had attempted to "sell" Ascetic Humanism to Indians, a product that sat well with Indians, culturally used to the austerity of some Gurus. An American equivalent might be a President who "sells" a mix of Christian Fundamentalism & the Amish.

Gandhi's folly was to hope that his countrymen would actually believe in his vision.

In hindsight, his attempts to bludgeon Indians into following his Ascetic Humanism may have helped focus nationalism, especially when he went on hunger strikes...but it was truly naive to believe that they could undo centuries of ugly tribalism between the two major religious groups, the Hindus and the Moslems, an emnity that he did not acknowledge had only calmed down during the British occupation.

India had fallen to the British 200 years before, precisely because it wasn't one nation, it was a number of principalities, much like Europe, with no centralised power or identity. Consequently, when confronted by the British, they fell like dominoes.

Ghandi's presumed Indian unity was actually only a function of the British occupation, not of India itself, which contained many cultures, languages and variations of its major religions,. each a world unto itself!

With Independence came almost virtual civil war between the Hindus and the Moslems, in many parts of the country, resulting in Partition, with India eventually splitting into 3 areas:

India
West Pakistan &
East Pakistan

...with millions of people dying and tens of millions relocating thousands of miles for fear of what came to be known as in the 1990s"ethnic cleansing".

So, Director Richard Attenborough's repectful panorama of Gandhi's astonishing 50 year struggle is a curious mixture of:

history
hero worship &
grand-scale movie making, the likes of which will probably never be seen again

So, does Gandhi The Movie work?

That's impossible for me to say. It's not so much a movie about Gandhi as about Indian independence, told through many moments in Gandhi's life. More importantly, that the struggle for Freedom for Indians can be extrapolated to be Freedom for all mankind.

Can.

On the other hand, if you don't make that connection, it's about an over-serious skinny guy who manipulated his wife, friends and eventually, country, by pulling out the guru card.

It's a little-publicised part of modern history that Hitler watched the British being matched so skillfully by Gandhi and deduced, rightfully, that the British Empire would soon be lost because they no longer had the will to dominate others. He took this as a sign of weakness and geared Nazi Germany for war. Am I saying that Gandhi caused the Second World War? No, but his successful struggle was one of the factors that helped instigate it.

If you're at all interested in 20th Century India or in how one man can change the world, do see Gandhi The Movie, it's still a remarkable dramatic account of troubled times and an astonishing man.

Gandhi DVD

"...The movie showed in depth the struggle on an entire nation looking for freedom within their own home land. Through the film you also see the making of the Civil Rights movement in America..." Amazon reviewer Tasha D. Staggers

"My vote for the best film biography ever made "...(director) Attenborough seems to have learned much from such masterful British film-makers as David Lean, for the use of scenery, topography, and natural surrounding of the characters as they wind through the more than 40 years of story line is breathtaking..." Amazon reviewer Barron Laycock

...I've used this film regularly for discussing charismatic transformational leadership with my business school students. The acting is incredible, the story monumental, and the dialogue and imagery unforgettable. Despite its length, I've watched more than a dozen times, and will continue to learn from it each time I watch it..." Amazon reviewer Aniel K. Mishra

Gandhi soundtrack

However, I warn you, always try to look beyond the obvious, because the blind application of religious values, which, by definition, are an internal struggle, the true Jihad, can never be extrapolated to create a political solution.

Why?

Because there will always be wolves that dress in sheeps' clothing, who will manipulate the gullible to do the opposite of what they truly desire. Worse still, those fools will do so, righteously.

Mysticism is individual, both the benefits and the costs should affect no-one else. Religion is by definition plural, usually tribal and historically has almost always looked ignorant in retrospect. Politics is a schizophrenic beast which can, in the blink of an eye, so easily become a brute.

To mix the three is not wise, under any circumstance.

Gandhi's autobiography

"...Gandhi's nonviolent struggles in South Africa and India had already brought him to such a level of notoriety, adulation, and controversy that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself.

Although accepting of his status as a great innovator in the struggle against racism, violence, and, just then, colonialism, Gandhi feared that enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding. He says that he was after truth rooted in devotion to God and attributed the turning points, successes, and challenges in his life to the will of God.

His attempts to get closer to this divine power led him to seek purity through simple living, dietary practices (he called himself a fruitarian), celibacy, and Ahimsa, a life without violence. It is in this sense that he calls his book The Story of My Experiments with Truth, offering it also as a reference for those who would follow in his footsteps..." Amazon blurb

A biography of Gandhi

"...The perfect introduction. This is the perfect book for someone who wants to learn the essentials about the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi...under 200 pages, and is laid out in three easy to read sections:

From Birth To Greatness
Gandhi In India
Victory and Tragedy

Fischer does not bog down into political minutiae, (it's) more of an OVERVIEW of the profound world-shaking life that was Gandhi, yet it is immensely informative, and well-paced. The author personally met with Gandhi in 1942 and again in '46, and his book shows that he had a wonderful understanding of the Mahatma's faith and convictions..." Amazon reviewer Cipriano

Gandhi Doll* for the hippy who has everything