There are times when it appears an actor is born to play a specific role. If this were true, Ben Kingsley work portraying Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would be the best example. Kingsley gives one of the great screen performances as the meek peace loving icon. The film is worth viewing just for Kingsley command performance. He humanizes the icon in a kind, promotional fashion that supports the legend more than the man. Now granted, Gandhi was a man who did great things with his life, but he was also a very flawed individual capable of some rather odd behavior (his disturbing sexual proclivities are one for starters.) This film wasn’t meant to show the real man but to lionize a fallen leader. Kingsley presents the legend with great conviction to where his performance solidified the man’s iconic status in the Western mind.

Director Richard Attenborough has crafted a patient, sprawling look at Gandhi’s life. There are a number of points where the story lags but these dips are short lived and the film as a whole is worthy of the praise that has been heaped upon it. It is a fascinating film to watch simply out of its masterful construction. Other than a few dry spots and the heavy “Gandhi as living saint” agenda, there is little I can find to criticize in this film. It is simply good cinema. It has a compelling lead, an engaging story and a writer and a director work perfectly in tandem – if only more films had so much going for them.

The one thing that has always stuck in my craw with Gandhi’s beliefs is that he promotes non-violence as a tool to shame the powerful into acting humanely. Gandhi confronted the British Empire, a society built on social order and appearances. Gandhi’s non-violence stance assumes the aggressor has a conscious. Would he done so well against Nazis, or Islamofascists? Believe it or not, there are belief systems out there that promote amorality and people committed to those ideologies are capable of inhuman brutality. It seems to me that Gandhi’s philosophy was so successful because he was dealing with civilized men, not true barbarians.

This is a brilliant film that is something you should at least try to sit through at least once. Those who have short attention spans or aren’t big on sprawling biopics, you may not make it all the way through. The more patient audience will find one of the better films ever made. Just remember that you’re watching an agenda piece more than a true biography.


Related Reviews:
Biopics
Patton (1970)
Milk (2008)


Other Critic’s Reviews:
Roger Ebert
Classic Film Guide

Labels: Ben Kingsley, biography, Candice Bergen, film, John Gielgud, Martin Sheen, movie review