Product Description
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Sir Ben Kingsley stars as Mohandas Gandhi in Lord Richard
Attenborough's riveting biography of the man who rose from simple
lawyer to worldwide symbol of peace and understanding. A critical
masterpiece, GANDHI is an intriguing story about activism,
politics, religious tolerance and freedom. But at the center of
it all is an extraordinary man who fought for a nonviolent,
peaceful existence, and set an entire nation free. Winner of 8
Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director (Richard
Attenborough) and Best Actor (Sir Ben Kingsley), GANDHI's highly
accled cast also includes Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, Sir John
Gielgud, Roshan Seth and Martin Sheen.UHDSir Ben Kingsley stars
as Mohandas Gandhi in Lord Richard Attenborough’s riveting
biography of the man who rose from simple lawyer to worldwide
symbol of peace and understanding. Winner of 8 Academy Awards®
including Best Picture, Best Director (Richard Attenborough) and
Best Actor (Sir Ben Kingsley), GANDHI’s highly accled
.co.uk Review
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Gandhi is a great subject, but is Gandhi a great film?
Undoubtedly it is, not least because it is one of the last
old-school epics ever made, a glorious visual treat featuring
tens of thousands of extras (real people, not digital effects)
and sumptuous Panavision cinematography. But a true epic is about
more than just widescreen photography, it concerns itself with
noble subjects too, and the life story of Mahatma Gandhi is one
of the noblest of all. Both the man and the film have profound
things to say about the meaning of freedom and racial harmony, as
well as how to achieve them. Ben Kingsley, in his first major
screen role, bears the heavy responsibility of the central
performance and carries it off magnificently; without his
magnetic and utterly convincing portrayal the film would founder
in the very first scene. Sir Richard Attenborough surrounds his
main character with a cast of distinguished thespians (Trevor
Howard, John Mills, John Gielgud and Martin Sheen, to name but
four), none of whom do anything but provide the most sympathetic
support. John Briley's literate screenplay achieves the almost
impossible task of distilling the bewildering complexities of
Anglo-Indian politics. Attenborough's is openly
reverential, but, given the saint-like character of his subject,
it's hard to see how it could have been anything else. He doesn't
flinch from the implication that the Mahatma was naïve to expect
a unified India, for example, but instead lets Gandhi's actions
speak for themselves. The outstanding achievement of this labour
of love is that it tells the story of an avowed pacifist who
never raised a hand in anger, of a man who never held high
office, of a man who shied away from publicity, and turns it into
three hours of utterly mesmerising cinema.
On the DVD: The anamorphic (16:9) picture of the original 2.35:1
image has a certain softness to it that may reflect the age of
the print, but somehow seems entirely in keeping with the subject
. Sound is Dolby 5.1. The extras are fairly brief, but
worthwhile: original newsreel footage of Gandhi includes an
astonishingly patronising British news account of his visit to
England; in a recent interview, Ben Kinglsey chats
enthusiastically about the film and the difficulties he
experienced bringing the character to life. The dull "making-of"
feature is simply a montage of stills. --Mark Walker
DVD Special Features
The making of "Gandhi" photo montage
The words of Mahatma Gandhi featurette
Ben Kingsley talks about Mahatma Gandhi
Theatrical trailer
Original newsreel footage
Weblink
Cast and crew filmographies
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, formatted for 16:9 TVs
English Dolby Digital 5.1
German, French language options
Subtitles: English, German, French, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew,
Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian,
Arabic