A-salt on the Empire (Gandhi (DVD))

Member Name: x_elff_x

Product:	Gandhi (DVD)
Date:	13/09/01 (221 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ben Kingsley, Newsreel footage, Lovely menus

Disadvantages: Bad subsidiary characters, Terrible filmography, Lack of a commentary track

Title: Gandhi

Certificate: PG

Director: Richard Attenborough

Writer: John Briley

Stars: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin Sheen, Rohini Hattangandy

Runtime: 188 minutes

Made: UK/USA/India

Richard Attenborough's epic rendering of the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi has certainly received plenty of plaudits, including an Oscar for best film. However, while it certainly is an epic film painted on a broad and beautiful canvas, it is very difficult to engage with it. Ben Kingsley certainly excels as the unassuming hero who leads his countrymen to freedom from British rule using peaceful means, but you can't help but be disappointed by other aspects of the film.

Attenborough guides us on a whistle stop tour through Gandhi's life, from his first brush of Empire when he is ousted from a South African train for being a 'black' lawyer, to his hunger strikes which led to India's peaceful protests against the British and his ultimate assassination. The film looks the part, being sumptuous and with a cast of thousands.

However, the subsidiary characters are very poorly fleshed out. We see, for example, Gandhi's young sons near the start of the movie and yet we never ever meet them again, which seems all the more odd as his wife (Rohinni Hattangandy) plays a fairly major role in the film.

Also, despite boasting a formidable cast of some of Britain's finest elder statesmen of theatre, including John Gielgud, John Mills and Edward Fox, their characters fail to rise above the one-dimensional. It is as though there is simply no time for character explanation or exploration because Attenborough has his hands full with the huge job of relating such an epic political tale.

Geraldine James, in particular, as his British acolyte Mirabehn is tragically underused, leading the few lines she is given to be
uttered without conviction. In fact, her entire presence in the film is explained in barely two sentences meaning that the watcher has only the vaguest grasp of how their friendship came about.

This is an informative and enjoyable movie – watching it is certainly an education – but it is not without its flaws, which while none of them are fatal, still leave you wondering how much better it could have been if the care and attention spent on Gandhi had been spread out over the rest of the production.



Region 2

Ratio 2.35:1 anamorphic

Sound Dolby Digital 5.1

Extras Scene Selection, Ben Kingsley talks about Gandhi, original newsreel footage including Gandhi Goes to England, Gandhi's Farewell Talk in Europe, Mahatma Gandhi Begins Death Fast, Gandhi Talks: First Talking Picture Ever Made by India's Famous Leader, The Making of Gandhi photo montage, The Words of Mahatma Gandhi, theatrical trailer, filmographies, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish Subtitles.


Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the DVD presentation of this film is the inclusion of an 'intermission' half way through. Quite literally. We are treated to around three minutes of Indian music and a black screen before the film recommences. It is situated at an appropriate and poignant point in the film – following a British atrocity - but one can't help wondering if it is strictly necessary on a DVD version of the film, as scene selection is an easy tool to use.

The packaging of the DVD itself is very slick, with impressive menus that are easily read from a distance and a nice moving scene selection on offer. The sound and picture quality are also exceptionally good.

The extras are not much to write home about, however, considering the epic nature of the film.

Ben Kingsley's comments about the f
ilming and each of the 'dear, dear' actors he worked with, are interesting, but it would have been nice to have included something similar featuring Richard Attenborough and a commentary soundtrack would certainly have been welcome, particularly if they could have rounded up a historian to talk you through the actual events surrounding the filmic ones.

The photo montage is a twee little romp through production stills, but the fact that it had to be 'played' with a musical backdrop was slightly annoying. It would have been nice to have just been able to click on the image you required and viewed it that way. Also it had no skip feature running through the stills meaning a hasty fast forward if you wanted to view one towards the end.

The Words of Mahatma Gandhi were a little dry too, being merely quote after quote flicking one after the other, out of context. Handy if you need an addition to a greetings card sometime, perhaps? And naturally, there is the ubiquitous trailer which, like the film, is rather lengthy.

The gem of the extras is the original archive footage, which certainly demonstrates how superb Kingsley was in this role. It is impossible not to be impressed by his achievement at capturing Gandhi's mannerisms and mode of speech. These clips are also fascinating as they help contextualise the film, filling in a couple of the gaps left by the movie.

As for the filmographies – they are awful. They are far too short and absolutely tiny on the screen, meaning you have to move much closer to the television to read them. They are simply a run down of films the actors have starred in, not even naming the character played in each film and containing no biographical information about the actors. This is such a simple thing to accomplish surely, yet so frequently disks get it wrong.

Overall, despite its drawbacks this is still a very worthwhile addition to anyone's DVD collection.

r>(Reprinted with permission from my own review on insideout.co.uk)