Review #868: 'Gandhi' (1982)

The late Richard Attenborough acknowledges the troubles with the biography genre from the get-go with his finest film as director, Gandhi. "No man's life can be encompassed in one telling," the opening credits state, "what can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one's way to the heart of the man." Yet Gandhi manages to achieve more than most biography's by not only portraying the famous historical events that the man lived through, of which no doubt helped form his own ideals, but by showing us the real man behind the speeches and the fasting, who enjoyed spending time at peace with his loving wife or operating his spinning wheel.

Wisely avoiding Mahatma Gandhi's early life, we are first properly introduced to the man as he rides a first-class carriage in South Africa. He is thrown off for being a non-white, even though he possesses a first-class ticket and is a practising lawyer, and this event provokes him to form a non-violent civil rights movement. Through sheer will and stubbornness, the government eventually relents and passes laws benefiting the residing Indians, allowing Gandhi to return to India in the process. When he arrives in his native country as a hero, he witnesses the same prejudicial brutality at the hands of the occupying British Empire. Through more non-violent protests, Gandhi manages to unite millions against the British, causing a divide between the Hindus and Muslims in the process.

Gandhi was a labour of love for Attenborough, who fought for over a decade to get to the film made. Alec Guinness was rumoured to be set for the role of Gandhi when the movie was still in the hands of David Lean, and after seeing Ben Kingsley's portrayal of the great man, such an idea now seems utterly preposterous. Kinglsey's performance is without a doubt one of the finest embodiments of a public figure in history, not only settling for a good impression and an uncanny resemblance, but convincing to the point that you believe Gandhi himself is on screen. It's a quiet, dignified performance, often channelling Gandhi's gentle charisma, shrewd wit and fierce intelligence without saying anything at all.

For all it's technical impressiveness - the film is undeniably beautiful, shot with a grandiose David Lean-esque epic feel with extra's numbered in the thousands - it occasionally plods. Although the events in South Africa no doubt shaped Gandhi's attitudes and spirit, we spend far too much time there, and this doesn't allow the complex events in India to unravel with the time and care that they warrant. The aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the growing political and social unease between the Hindus and Muslims, and the events that led to Gandhi's assassination are all rushed over the finish line. Without these flaws, Gandhi may have been a masterpiece. However it is still an enlightening experience, and the praise lavished upon Kingsley (as well as his Oscar) is wholly justified.


Directed by: Richard Attenborough
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin Sheen, Ian Charleson
Country: UK/India

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #595: 'Jubilee' (1978)

Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre), guided by John Dee (Richard O'Brien) and spirit guide Ariel (David Brandon), travels forward in time to the eve of the Silver Jubilee to witness Britain in a state of moral and physical decay. The Queen is dead, and the streets are now seemingly ran by groups of punks wearing outlandish clothes and face-paint. One particular group, consisting of, amongst others, Amyl Nitrate (Jordan), Mad (Toyah Willcox), Bod (Runacre in a dual role), Crabs (Nell Campbell) and Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), tend to spend their time smashing cars, having sex, participating in the odd murder, and generally giving the two-finger salute to anything resembling conformity. Crabs picks up a young punk named Kid (Adam Ant), who has aspirations to be a rock star, and finds himself being swept up by the system.

Derek Jarman certainly wasn't a punk - he was at least one generation too late and his art was generally  more focused on themes of homosexuality and homoerotica - but Jubilee seems to aspire to be a film that defines punk. As well as the many punk acts that appears in the film (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wayne County and The Stilts all appear as well as the aforementioned Jordan, Wilcox and Adam Ant), Jubilee adopts a punk aesthetic. The Britain of the 'future' is a dystopian wasteland, filmed in the poorer areas of London that are still marked by the Blitz, visualised through a grey-blue tinted lens. The outfits are a ragged mixture of fashions and social decadence from years and centuries past, combined to make a mockery of social conformity and mass consumerism.

Yet the film is a lot more than a representation of a movement that caught the director's eye. Jarman combines themes of sci-fi, social commentary, the idea of 'Britishness', and satire, in what is ultimately a bit of a mess, but an intriguing and often fascinating mess nonetheless. In fact, this roughness works in favour of it's nihilistic outlook, and the episodic structure offers some bizarre and outlandish vignettes (my personal favourites being Jordan's rendition of Rule Britannia in an Union Jack dress and the murder of a transvestite). But the film wanders on for a bit too long, lessening its impact, and shifting focus to Kid's dull plight in the music business (although it does introduce the phenomenal Jack Birkett).

This is certainly Jarman like I've never seen him before, possibly the most complex and 'cinematic' of his filmography, but the film sometimes overreach itself. Often the film becomes confusing, shifting it's tone from dramatic to satirical, causing the message that Jarman is trying to communicate to blur to the point where I didn't know whether to laugh or to ponder. Is this a film celebrating punk and rebellion? Or is it satirising punk? I've read various writings about this film that claim both. As a film, it lacks lacks narrative and focus, but as an experience, it is certainly memorable. It also has a great cast of actors and musicians that are still remembered in cult circles from old Britain, including Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson, Claire Davenport and Lindsay Kemp, for those, like me, who enjoy looking back in time at Britain, which is ironically the opposite to what Queen Elizabeth I does in Jubilee.


Directed by: Derek Jarman
Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Jordan, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson, Adam Ant
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #182: 'Chariots of Fire' (1981)

As the 1924 Paris Olympics approach, two different but equally determined young British men prepare themselves for a chance at glory. One, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) is an English Jew attending Cambridge University, along with his friends and fellow athletes Aubrey Montague (Nicholas Farrell), Lord Andrew Lindsay (Nigel Havers) and Henry Stallard (Daniel Gerroll). The other, devout Christian and proud Scot raised in China, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), seems to have the ability to leave anyone he races against in his wake. One is racing against prejudice, the other for the God he believes gave him the ability to run. But with the Americans dominating the sport, do they have a chance at taking the gold medal?

Because of the amount of times I've seen this film lampooned, with the use of its music played over something in slow-motion, I was expecting this film to have become a parody of itself. I was not expecting something as brilliant and profoundly moving as I did experience. From the opening scene that depicts the main characters running along the beach in slow-motion to that score, I was hooked. How a film that begins in 1919 and is steeped in period detail can work with a very 80's synthesised score is beyond me, but it works wonderfully, and was a massive risk that is pulled off.

Slight historical inaccuracies and tweaks from the sake of narrative aside, the film strongest point comes in its authenticity. For all the films that try and look wonderful in the period dress and detail, few actually feel like its set in the time. For example, Gangs Of New York (2002), was gorgeous and I'm sure the costumes and sets were very accurate, but it always feels like you're watching actors on a set. Chariots Of Fire convinces while seeming effortless, with the clothes and props having a 'lived-in' feel.

Apart from the visual delights, there are the two leads who both went criminally unrecognised at the Academy Awards. Ben Cross is all steely determination and frustrated rage as Abrahams, who is the inferior runner to Liddell. And Ian Charleson, a celebrated stage actor who tragically died nine years after this film was made, is just a naturally fine actor who plays the devout Christian Eric Liddell with such an ease and intelligence that he deserved an Academy Award nomination at the very least. But those Oscar voters don't get it right very often, although the film did bring home Best Picture.

It has been criticised for its inaccuracies. Lord Lindsay didn't exist and is a stand-in for the real-life Lord Burghley, and Aubrey Montague attended Oxford, not Cambridge. The note that is handed to Liddell just before his big race by the American runner Jackson Scholz (Brad Davis) that wishes him luck was actually given to him by an American masseur, and it is said that Abrahams faced very little persecution due to the fact that he was Jewish at Cambridge. They are others too, but, to me, this is a film about two great sportsmen using their ability to speak for what they believe in. If you want an accurate account of what actually happened, you can read a biography or look on Wikipedia. The film makes changes for more power and to get its point across, while keeping the majority of the true-life story correct.

A wonderfully intelligent film that is packed with great performances, stunning cinematography, and subtle period detail, with a distinct Britishness about it that seemed to have been lost in the 1960's. And as much as that score is made fun of, it still packs the same power and remains oddly stirring.


Directed by: Hugh Hudson
Starring: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Ian Holm, Nigel Havers, John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson, Nigel Davenport
Country: UK

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie