Watching these historical movies time and time again show me that I’m seriously lacking in knowledge about world history as also was the case with this film. I knew that India was ruled by the English and that Gandhi was very important in the process of the country becoming independent, but that was about as far as my knowledge went. This biopic shows the process which took place to make that independence happen and the difference one man can make in changing the future.
The movie starts out with the assassination which ended Gandhis life and then looks back at his life, starting with his experiences in South Africa, where he experienced racism and decided to do something about it in a non violent way. After he went back to India he got politically involved and decided to fight against the rules set by the British.
Ben Kingsley is stunning in this movie, which to me is the best role he has been in. At 191 minutes this is a long movie, but the story deserves and uses that running time effectively and tries to describe the life story of Gandhi to the best of its abilities and succeeds. This results in some amazing imagery, including scenes with a big number of extras (according to IMDB 300000) and the telling of a story which is very inspiring. It shows that words can be more powerful than nuclear weapons. A classic movie which every film buff should have seen.
A guy tried to impress me by bringing over a DVD of Ghandi when I was in middle school. Pretty heavy for a kid, but watched it again later and loved it,
Yeah, I can imagine that, but it is a very good movie, so nice to hear you rewatched it.
Nice review man. That’s one of the great things about watching historical type movies, they can help fill in gaps in your knowledge and I usually do some more reading etc about things I find interesting. Haven’t seen this one, so will have to track a copy down.
Thanks a lot and I love movies like this where I actually feel I’ve learned something. Watch it if you can 🙂
I watched this one in school and I’ve seen it a few times since. I found it very powerful but haven’t seen it in quite a few years. Your review reminds me to re-watch it!
Nice that my review reminded you to do that. Enjoy it!
Whoa, perfect score. I saw this too several months ago, very moving and also broaden my knowledge. Agree with your opinion, so inspiring. Ben Kingsley was excellent.
Yeah and I don’t give those out very often as you know. Ben Kingsley was amazing.
I reviewed this one as part of my series on Best Picture winners. It’s an amazingly beautiful movie with a stunning performance by one of my favorite actors. Here are a couple of links from my review and my page on Kingsley.
http://didyouseethatone.com/my-favorites/my-favorites-ben-kingsley/
http://didyouseethatone.com/2011/11/06/ghandi/
Nice, will give that a look!
Always loved this gem, but would have been better if they showed his weird sexual abstinence games: he’d “test” himself by sleeping naked with a pretty young lady to face down temptation. What a pickup line! “Hey darlin’, want to come back to my place and help me stare temptation in the eyes and tell it ‘no, you can’t have my lust, I am one with god'”.
Really? Never heard of that!
Sadly, this is a film that has always eluded me. The runtime has been too daunting most of the times I’ve considered watching it.
Yeah, that always is an issue for me as well with long movies, but I managed to find some time for it, because it had been on my to watch list for ages.
Pingback: Gandhi (1982) | THE SCARECROW