Gandhi

Rating:
Summary: The worste I've ever seen
Review: This movie is one of the biggest examples of how movies in general can slaughter the events that they are based on. This movie was not made as any tribute, so matter what anyone says. This movie was made to MAKE $$$$$$. That's all.

Rating:
Summary: DVD Review.
Review: "Gandhi" is one of my all-time favorite movies! The DVD is great with features! The movie is about the life story of Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian political leader who managed to free his country from the British rule using peaceful means and thus giving hope and inspiration for generations to come. The movie is based on a true story. "Gandhi" is a movie that won 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor Ben Kingsley, and Best Director Richard Attenborough. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Lesson Learned
Review: Perhaps no historical document on film has such a profound modern political impact as "Gandhi". When you consider the current situation in the Middle-East, nothing in artistic form so broadly displays the roots of its foundation as this film. Directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, and permitted by the government of India, "Gandhi" is singularized by the brilliant performance of Sir Ben Kingsley. Indeed, one of the great film acting performances of all time.

We begin the film journey, for indeed this is quite the epic running over three hours long, in a train car as young Gandhi is headed to South Africa. Unbeknownst to him, dark skinned men are not allowed in first class seats, and since he is a lawyer, and quite accustomed to first-class, he refuses to move. Little do the men who throw him from the train know that they are lighting a fire that would eventually take down an Empire.

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There are many poignant scenes in Gandhi's struggle on film, one of which is the massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh...The second of which is a demonstration at a Salt Factory, ...

Gandhi is a triumphant picture, which preaches the power of the human spirit and the ability of non-violence to defy the tyrannical and bloodthirsty. Anchored by the brilliant performance of Kingsley, and with the assistance of two American icons in great supporting performances, Martin Sheen and Candice Bergman, as well as the two British legends Sir John Gielgud and Sir Johnny Mills, Gandhi is a feast of the human soul and a wonderful film for dreamers idealists, and lovers of good cinema.

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking! A Masterpiece! Was intrigued by every minute!
Review: Born to be a classic! "GANDHI" is an amazing look into a seemingly ordinary person's life. Yet, when you hear and see of his travels and thoughts, you realize he isn't ordinary because he does extraordinary things. The great thing is how insightful and close this movie brings you to Gandhi's daily life and Ben Kigsley's emotions that he gives to his character bring you close to the pain Gandhi must have gone through. And also as I watched it on the DVD, I was inpired by, not the words Kingsley had learned from a script, but the words of Gandhi and his reasons for doing what he did.
And as the movie ended, with tears in my eyes, I thought about what Albert Einstein said-"Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth", but I disagreed because I did believe with all my heart.
I now believe Gandhi lives in all of us. But it still mystifies me how one man can be as fragile as anyone else and yet at the same time be almost as powerful as God himself.

Rating:
Summary: Not everyones cup of tea. But wonderful nevertheless.
Review: This is one of the best movies in its category. This is the true story of Ghandi and the role he played in freeing India from the British occupation. Both picture and sound are wonderful.

This is a three hours movie. The pace is slow at times and fast at other times. This is not something to watch while you are reading the paper. This is a movie that requires the viewer to be in the correct frame of mind before begining to view it. Set aside sometime to watch it, and you will not be disappointed.

I must have watched this movie 10 times already, it is that good. The special features are excellent and there are some newsreels of Gandhi himself.

I throughly enjoyed the movie and the DVD and I highly recommend the movie to all people.

Rating:
Summary: Best Movie in 20 Years
Review: This movie is a perfect depiction of English Imperialism. For anyone who doesn't know that much about India, Gandhi really fills in the blanks. Also, contrary to one reveiwer, Gandhi IS played by an Indian guy. Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji.

Rating:
Summary: A Gripping Thriller!
Review: Gandhi is amazing! An action packed adventure that is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat. If you want a sleeper of a movie, stop reading and look somewhere else. Gandhi has it all- romance, death, adventure, action, drama, struggle, and modern effects. WELL WORTH THE HOURS! Once you start you can not let it go!

Rating:
Summary: Noble, Nobel Biography with Unjust Crediting
Review: It's a shame to start off a review of such a crucially important film and story with superficialities, but I have to mention right off the bat that this is the most attractively packaged DVD I have ever seen. The acetate slip-cover layers so well over the DVD case itself, especially the back-cover with the inset of a smiling Gandhi which layers over the throbbing masses by the train station in India.

Also, the extras in this film are truly phenomenal. The standout: actual footage of Gandhi in the 40s, actual speech by him and actual headlines from newspapers of the time. Not only does the owner of this DVD get treated to a superb dramatization of one of the most important stories of our time, but they actually get to meet the subject, himself.

EVERYBODY SHOULD SEE THIS MOVIE!!! India is the world's largest democracy, and 2nd most populous country. It has one of the oldest uninterrupted civilizations and has been reponsible for more bodies of knowledge than the West is ready to give it credit for. India's greatest human, Mohandas Gandhi, of the last couple of hundred years or so is a most noble subject. This film wonderfully shows Gandhi's unimaginably unflinching pacificsm and social disobedience which bought India's freedom from the cruel British rule, and it necessarily shows the vast human cost that India paid to gain its rightful independence.

Highlights of this 9-time Academy Award winner are Ben Kingsley's Oscar-winning performance as Gandhi, himself, the wonderful acting jobs of Roshan Seth ("Mississippi Masala", "Monsoon Wedding" - both must sees) as Nehru, the ever-present Indian actors Saeed Jaffrey, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, and Rohini Hattangadi (as Gandhi's wife), and Edward Fox, who did an uncanny job of portraying the indescribably wicked (and brainwashed?) General Dyer, perpetrator of the Amritsar Massacre.

In addition to great acting, some of the most poignant examples of the horrors of India's struggle for her independence, in terms of Indian civilian casualties, are included: the brutalities at the Dharasana salt mine as well as the aforementioned Amritsar Massacre. These two examples show the absolute, unconscionable British brutality. The film also necessarily showed the sad truth: that a people can be bought to oppress their own, and that the divisions within an oppressed people will inevitably flare up to disastrous results once the common oppression is overthrown (see: 200,000 Hindus and Muslims slaughtering each other in communal riots during the actual gaining of independence).

There are a couple of MAJOR gripes with this movie, though, in terms of crediting. Every single actor listed on the case is white (British or American), and every single actor listed in the Filmographies Extra is white. Amazon, themselves, list only British/American actors in the first ten names on "cast list" for this item, despite the fact that all of the major movie-spanning roles, except for that of Gandhi, were played by actual Indians (Roshan Seth, Saeed Jaffrey) who are every bit as accomplished as their American and British counterparts. Another note of outrage is that this movie was filmed in both English and Hindi, yet there is neither Hindi language option nor Hindi subtitle option (nor any other Indian language, for that matter). How sad that the technical features of this movie alienate the people who are the subjects of this movie and how sad it is that the people trying to sell it to you right now only further perpetuate the malappropriation of credit.

Rating:
Summary: The Mahatma would not be pleased
Review: While 'Gandhi' the DVD is certainly one of the most visually beautiful packages I have ever seen, it is also a sad commentary on the ultimate impact this movie has made on Western studios (read : nothing). The DVD comes in a see through white plastic case, with a clear band window running on either side. This lets us catch a glance of the real case cover, which has Gandhi in white, illuminated by the multitudes of men chanting beside him and around him. When you slip the case out of its' plastic holder, you are treated to the fuller version of the same picture, which, with the wonders of Adobe Photoshop, have rendered what was once just another studio shot of Ben Kingsley as Gandhi, into something far more magical and memorable.

All the details of the DVD are listed on the back of the white plastic case. The actual DVD case itself is in a wonderfully regal dark gold color, and the back picture is of the train sequence, with the words "Be the change you wish to see" beautifully etched across the skyline. Indeed, I have never come across a packaging for a disc that has so aptly captured the film's sentiment. On this front, I give the disc a full five stars.

However, the DVD itself smacks of hypocrisy. I find that everytime a reviewer gives this disc a low star rating due to the fact that the DVD blatantly insults the fact that Gandhi spoke Hindi and that all the main actors (save for Ben) were Indian, people are quick to claim that the review was 'not useful'. I am not sure why this is, but the truth is that this is very much an Indian film, with all the important roles played by Indian actors, and yet there is not ONE mention of ANY of their names on the DVD packaging. Candice Bergen, who appears for just eight minutes on screen, is given prime billing next to Ben Kingsley, while Rohini Hattangady, a beautiful Indian actress who plays the Mahatma's wife and was onscreen for most of the three hour film, is not mentioned even once on the DVD.

When you click on 'Cast and Crew', it is even more horrifying. Not even ONE of the actors mentioned are Indian. ALL of the actors listed are white. The great Alyque Padamsee who played Jinnah, the wonderful Roshan Seth who played Nehru, the incredibly talented Saeed Jaffrey who played Sardar Patel - all of them are not even mentioned ONCE. Considering that they appear throughout the film, this is a horrendous insult to the Indian film crew. However, consider it typical American studio idiocy, for Martin Sheen and Trevor Howard (both of whom pop up at the beginning and the next-to-end) get full page biographies and filmographies. This is intolerable.

This is especially disturbing, because this is exactly the sort of vapid Western-minded stupidity and xenophobia that Mahatma Gandhi fought against. Any self-respecting Indian would flush this occidental abomination down the drain. To add to the insult, the DVD does not even bother to mention that 'Gandhi' was shot simultaneously in English and Hindi. The Hindi version was the one released to millions of people in India, and the one that plays on Indian national television to this day. Considering that Gandhi spoke Hindi, and willfully strove to ignore English toward the most epic years of his life, the DVD literally slaps his message in the face by not including a Hindi language audio track. Yet, we get French and Spanish audio tracks, as if that were any consolation.

I was also dismayed and rather angered when I realized that there wasn't even a Hindi language subtitle option available. If the studio intended this as a DVD release for Caucasian audiences alone, I would understand. But yet they include obscure subtitles such as Thai and Korean, which makes the whole thing even more perplexing.

In the end, I think the 'Gandhi' DVD is a perfect example of how one should not judge a book by its' cover. This DVD is a glorious example of Western corporate ignorance and greed, and how the most beautiful cinematic achievements can die a gruesome death when handed over to the studios they were made under. I personally call for a boycott of this DVD until serious repairs are made. And if you're really interested in watching this film as it was intended, try to get your hands on the original Hindi version of the movie with English subtitles. That is the only version the poor Indian woman working in the fields, for whom Gandhi fought for, has watched.

Rating:
Summary: A must have DVD for your collection
Review: Certainly a true testament to the human spirit. One would have to have lived in a cave to have not known about Ghandi. Ben Kingsley does an extremely good job at capture history of this great man. Highly recommend