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 #841: 'The Offence' (1972)

Sean Connery is more a superstar than an actor. Although his talents have been recognised by the Academy (for his rather unconvincing turn as an Irish cop in The Untouchables (1987)) and remembered for his role as the first James Bond, he is high up on his own pedestal, a gift for voice actors and one of the handsomest faces ever to have graced the screen. But anyone in doubt of his ability as a proper thespian need look no further than his grim, tormented portrayal of a cop who has seen one too many dead bodies in Sidney Lumet's The Offence, a huge flop at the box office and a film now faded into memory, ripe for a re-discovery.

Playing with time Rashomon (1950)-style, the film begins in slow motion, where an unknown disturbance at a police station has a few officers panicked. It is revealed to be Detective Sergeant Johnson (Connery) standing over the bloodied body of suspect Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen), with fellow police officers scattered on the floor. It then goes back, and we are in a grey, miserable city gripped in panic as a child-killing paedophile roams free. The latest disappearance of a young girl has Johnson riled, and officers cruising the street pick up Baxter, who is wandering alone in the night covered in mud. The young girl is found raped but alive by Johnson himself, who insists on spending some time alone with the suspect.

Based on John Hopkins' stage play This Story of Yours, Connery fought tooth-and-nail to adapt it for the big screen, eventually reprising his role as Bond in Diamond Are Forever (1971) in return for the green-light. Although the film consists of long, talky scenes, Lumet uses stylish editing in order to avoid being stagy and to delve further into his anti-hero's head. His reputation as a no-nonsense director betrays him here, as scenes of gruesome murders, body parts, and a host of other atrocities Johnson has witnessed flash before our eyes. The use of slow motion in the flashback moments also employs a sort of circular filter at the centre of the screen, reflecting Johnson's disconnection from his actions but getting slightly tiresome in the process.

There are three long, outstanding scenes. The first is Johnson returning home to his wife (Vivien Merchant) following his interrogation of Baxter, drinking heavily and exploding at the one person who could possibly help him. The second is Johnson's own interrogation with superintendent Cartwright (the ever-excellent Trevor Howard), a man who has witnessed the same level of horror himself, but has learnt to separate his work from his life, something Johnson is unable to do. The third is the extended interrogation of Baxter, where Bannen's creepy turn surely must have been an inspiration for the Joker-Batman verbal showdown in The Dark Knight (2008). It's incredibly bleak stuff, but the raw honesty of the script and performances makes this powerful stuff.


Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, Ian Bannen, Vivien Merchant
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie