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Gandhi

Gandhi

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant!!! A triumph in film making!!!!
Review: Truly a masterpiece. The whole cast is remarkable in this tremendous story of one of the biggest and most controversial leaders of our times. The ending -which is actually the beginning- is very sad. Ben Kingsly was perfectly cast as Gandhi and mixes comedy and drama into one great and Oscar-winning role.

(Why should e listen to this reviewer from Copenhagen if he/she can't even spell "garbage"?)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: this movie sucked. do not waste your time on this garbige
Review: this movie is the worst movie I have ever seen. and the acting please

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Sheer Brilliant look into history
Review: 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.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Rating would be lower if not for Kingsley's performance
Review: I have a lot of respect for Gandhi, but this movie is plagued with one sided views and historical inaccuracies. The oscars are just another instance of Hollywood's love of epics.

The film glosses over unpleasant but inconvenient facts which are not in line with the simplistic theme of the movie.

A key example is the Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar) massacre - the film shows Gen. Dyer court martial but doesn't mention Dyer's heroes welcome on return to England. This biased portrayal completely distorts facts about how the Indians and the British felt about the event.

Gandhi's murder and the motives behind the act are not addressed, something becoming more relevant with the current rise of Hindu fundamentalism in India.

The movie wants us to believe that the best way to confront evil and win your basic rights is through non-violence. A dangerous recommendation - don't try it against the Nazis. The sub continent won its freedom not from non violence, but because it had leaders which were smarter and more determined than the politicians heading an empire reeling from the disasterous Second World War.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A powerful film with important messages about true goodness.
Review: Gandhi is a film which gives the audience two powerful things. First, it shows the true story of how one man was able to use non-violent methods of passive resistance to drive out the English rulers, inabling India to have home rule. Second, in Gandhi's effort to unify the Muslims and Hindus of India, he teaches the audience a special lesson about the difference in religion as a person's way of serving God. He talks about seeing a religious leader reading from both the Muslim and Hindu books of worship at the same service, with the only important factor of God being worshipped. He says, "I am a Muslim. I am a Hindu. I am a Christian. I am a Jew." This shows the audience the true important lesson from Gandhi, that we should be good people and love God in our own special way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An accurate portrayal of the life of Gandhi.
Review: I'll keep it brief - I loved this film. I thought that every aspect of it was well portrayed, and Ben Kingsley was absolutely brilliant. The scenes were the men marched against their oppressors, only to be knocked down time & time again was tear-jerking at the least, and other scenes, such as when Gandhi fasted to attempt to preserve peace was very emotional. Wonderful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best of all time. Period.
Review: Without a doubt, Richard Attenborough's production of the life of Mahatma Gandhi should be considered one of the top five movies of all time. Thoughtful, candid and engrossing are only three of the many superlatives that have been used to describe this movie. Ben Kingsley is nothing short of brilliant as the great Mahatma. Martin Sheen is outstanding as Walker, an American journalist who meets Gandhi for the first time in South Africa. Watch for Edward Fox in a minor role as a coldly dispassionate British Army Officer responsible for the slaughter at the Amritsar temple, and a very young-looking Candace Bergen as a reporter for Life magazine. Add this to your collection as soon as possible.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "We must be the change we wish to see."
Review: "Gandhi" is a brilliant encapsulation of the life of the man who must be counted among the greatest, most admirable figures in the history of humankind. Starring Ben Kingsley, Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen, Rohini Hattangady, Roshan Seth, John Gielgud, and Trevor Howard, and directed by Richard Attenborough, this 1982 film is a stunning achievement - without doubt one of the finest biographical epics ever made. It garnered six Academy Awards, including Best Picture; Best Actor (Kingsley); and Best Director (Attenborough). This film beautifully fulfills the goals set out in the film's preface: "...to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one's way to the heart of the man..."

As this film demonstrates, Mohandas K. Gandhi, always faithful to his principles of equality, justice, and peace, uses non-violent civil disobedience as a means to gain equality for his nation's oppressed. his weapon. He is repeatedly assaulted by police and is imprisoned - usually on trumped up charges - several times because of his political beliefs and activism. Yet this always gentle and humble gentle man never loses sight of his main goal: helping his people achieve political and economic equality. Although only marginally successful, Gandhi becomes famous throughout the world for his work in South Africa and India.

In this masterfully produced, directed, written, and acted film, the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi is painted against the backdrop of some of the most momentous events in twentieth century Indian history. "Gandhi" shows how the Mahatma (Great Soul) leads a nation of 350 million people to freedom from British colonial rule using non-violent means. We see Gandhi at the outset, making speeches in his low-key style, but even then espousing his clearly defined doctrine of peaceful non-cooperation against a repressive British colonial rule. Contrary to many public perceptions of the man, this film shows that Gandhi was not just a simple, humble man in a loincloth. He was a shrewd, pragmatic man who knew the value of good press in the furtherance of his cause. He knew how to confront his political enemies in ways that got his point across while garnering from his foes a grudging respect.

Throughout all these tumultuous events, Gandhi never wavers from his belief in non-violent civil resistance as a means of achieving justice, equality, and freedom for the Indian nation.

January 30, 1948: a supreme irony: Mohandas K. Gandhi - the man of peace who consistently espouses the dignity of all people; the proponent of non-violence, equality, justice, and peace - is violently gunned down by an assassin working for a fanatic Hindu group.

There are simply not enough superlatives to do adequate justice to "Gandhi." Every aspect of this film is masterfully done! Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Gandhi is one of those singular performances that is so good that it defies description. His meticulous preparation for this part is readily evident in every scene in which he appears. His physical resemblance to the real Gandhi, and the way he mimicked Gandhi's mannerisms, is so realistic as to be positively eerie. Kingsley's performance is always sensitive, even slightly understated. Yet there is always present a powerful intensity that conveys the deep spirituality and integrity of the man he so lovingly portrays.

Other performances, although nowhere near as wide-ranging, are no less outstanding. Among them: John Gielgud as the slighly addled, pompous British viceroy, Lord Irwin; Trevor Howard as the British judge whose respect for defendant Gandhi leads him to rise from his seat in deference to the man he is about to sentence to prison; Roshan Seth as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the staunchly loyal disciple and future Indian Prime Minister; and Rohini Hattangady as Gandhi's loving wife.

A NOTE ABOUT THE DVD: "Gandhi," a 20-year old film, was only released on DVD for the first time in October 2001. This a truly magnificent restoration and remastering of this great film! It's the first time that "Gandhi" appears on recorded media in its original 2.35:1 widescreen format. Video and audio quality are both simply outstanding! There are plenty of "extras" included on the DVD, including a "Making of Gandhi" photo montage and several newsreel clips showing Gandhi at several important points in his life.

"Gandhi" is a film that belongs in every movie lover's DVD collection

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Movie does not do justice to the person
Review: Richard Attenborough's movie "Gandhi" was a movie of epic proportion. Mohandas Gandhi was probably the most influential person of modern day India. If one reads any of his biographies or his autobiography, one would find that he was a very complex person. The movie was well directed and showed some of the important parts of the freedom struggle starting from his initiation in South Africa. However, for the sake of marketing, the movie concentrates largely on the european angle and sidetrakes the Indian angle completely.

Gandhi was a person who started a new line of thinking that inspired people like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Dalai Lama. He was a complex person who right from childhood was afraid of ghosts and speaking in public. He was a disaster as a lawyer initially. The transformation happened when he saw the injustice happen to him in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. I wish that the movie had shown the transformation in the person. This was an important catalysis. Most of the people shown in the movie were not important in Gandhi's life, though they were decent actors, such as Candice Bergan and so on. The Indians who associated with him such as Patel, Nehru, Azad and so on are given minor importance.

Some of his important speeches were left out, which are thought provoking. Recently Time magazine had Salman Rushdie write a piece about Gandhi. Granted there is freedom of speech, but I had never seen a more badly written piece about Gandhi than that. Rushdie should stick to fiction - well he is losing his touch in that too. Gandhi had his faults like any human, some of his ideas may not apply in the present day world. But his positives far outweigh his negatives. The sad part is that he is largely forgotten in India itself. Most people in India do not take the trouble to read and know about the real person, what he stood for, his ideals. In fact, I am ashamed to say that South Africa remembers him more than India, even though his is the father of India. Even in the last elections in South Africa, he was used as an icon. However, in India, he is slowly ebbing away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of a kind?
Review: I do not expect to see another film like "Gandhi" in my lifetime. The movie sets itself apart from just about all other stories of triumph over oppression by its unflagging commitment to reality. Most filmmakers are more faithful to their points of view than the stories they tell. In contrast, the British who rule India in "Gandhi" are neither buffoons nor cackling villains. This fidelity to story and personality allows viewers to feel as if they are witnessing, first-hand, events that occurred long ago.

When I first saw "Gandhi" at age twelve, I was overwhelmed by the man himself. He represented the best a person could be, better than a saint because anyone in any walk of life could follow his example. Later I realized it wasn't just the power of the story, but also the movie-making itself. The score, on its own, is a masterpiece. The acting, directing, and cinematography are glorious. Sure, it helps to have a compelling story, but Hollywood is littered with lousy movies based on great ideas.

The only failure worth noting is the film's box-office pandering of Candice Bergen as Margaret Bourke-White. Her performance was unobjectionable, but the focus on Bourke-White seemed forced and out of place: here's your glamour, now come see our movie. At the theater, the marquee read, "Ben Kingsley - Candice Bergen - `Gandhi.'" Right. It's a Kingsley/Bergen film.

Oh well, a small price to pay for a once in a lifetime creation.


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