Gandhi (1 Viewer)

[Sam Davatchi]

It’s a shame there is no topic on this movie. I only found two topics at the software section with two replies about the packaging! This movie deserves better. DVDFile has mentioned something interesting in their review. Considering myself of Spielberg/Lucas generation, when I was young, I thought too that Spielberg was robbed by Gandhi at the Oscars. But with time and age, you can see that there are far more important things. I’m sure that if Spielberg had the opportunity, he would have trade several “E.T.s” for one “Gandhi”!
This is truly a masterpiece. People normally compare it to Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence of Arabia might be larger and more epic in the making but Gandhi is a more important movie and far bigger and better in spirit. I watched Lawrence in three seperate viewings but with Gandhi I was surprised that I watched it from start to end in one viewing without a blink of an eye! Richard Attenborough has achieved a far more important thing here than just a movie.
If you have not seen this movie yet, or were a kid like myself when it first came out and ignored it, it’s time for you to discover this gem.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Gandhi is captivating both in its story and visuals. I have not seen the current DVD release but it was truly one of the best films released in 1982, the same year E.T. was released. The two are very different films and either one could have been the Best Picture Oscar winner, which was fine by me. A tough choice by the Academy indeed that year.
~Edwin
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http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/005780.html#8

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Gandhi the film has a special place in my heart because there is a scene that is filmed in our hometown in India(Porbander) which is very near our actual home. My uncle and his family still live there. When I saw it(I was 16) at the theater, I knew that this would win the Best Picture and thought it was quite deserved.

 

[Mike A]

I had actually never seen Gandhi until I rented the DVD the other day. All I can say is WOW, they don't make movies like this anymore. They don't make men like Gandhi anymore, or perhaps he was more than a mere mortal.
What a wonderful film. A very nice DVD with a fantastic transfer, that really makes the beautiful cinematography shine. Ben Kingsley was amazing as Gandhi. I would rank his performance as one of the all time great performances by an actor. I'm hard pressed to think of one better.
A great, great movie about a wonderful human being.

out of

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Mitsubishi 55807
Toshiba 5109
Yamaha RX-V496
DVD Collection
[Edited last by Mike A on September 06, 2001 at 05:47 PM]

 

[Mitty]

If you guys are interested, Bob Banka from The Big Picture wrote a pretty good review of the film and DVD. You can find it here .
He sums up my feelings pretty well about the movie. It's a good movie about an important subject, but it still leaves me a little cold. I'm not a sticker for historical accuracy in films about true life events, since details are usually changed, added or embellished to make the story more entertaining and/or interesting. In the case of Gandhi, the white washing serves the opposite effect. Bob Banka wrote, "Most anything that would make him something less than a saint has been scrubbed out of the story." I pretty much agree with that. I'm not saying the film should have been a "warts and all" expose, or a character assassination, but the feeling the film conveys is that Gandhi did great things simply because he was a great man. Attenborough paints him as someone who could not help but be noble and strong and do the right thing. Somehow that downplays his courage and his accomplishments in my eyes, since he was, in reality, a normal human being who did great things.
Like Bob, I also read Pauline Kael's review a long time ago, and one thing I remember her writing, because I agreed strongly with it, is that Attenborough tells the story so reverentially that one would imagine Gandhi were Jesus Christ himself. I think that's part of the reason this film, at least for me, can't occupy a place of greatness. I can't blame Richard Attenborough though. I can't imagine anything controversial about the man (a few such things are mentioned in Bob's review) could have made its way into the film without major protest and/or the pulling out of financial backers. I think the choice for Attenborough was either this film, which sweeps a few undesirable details under the rug, or no film at all. If so, he made the right choice. The world knows more about Gandhi due to his movie than every other text written on the man, and it did capture the spirit of his life, his struggles and his philosophies.