Gandhi
Academy Award × 8
Rent/Purchase
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
What critics thought
Broadly praised on release and since, the film rests almost entirely on Ben Kingsley's performance, which drew near-unanimous admiration even from those who found Attenborough's direction workmanlike or overly reverential. The sharpest disagreements were not about the filmmaking craft but about the film's portrait of Gandhi himself — historians, anthropologists, and some journalists attacked it as hagiography that smoothed over inconvenient facts, while others saw that moral clarity as a feature rather than a flaw.
“There are very few movies that absolutely must be seen. Sir Richard Attenborough's Gandhi is one of them.”
Jack Kroll·Newsweek
“Kingsley is nothing short of astonishing.”
Richard Schickel·Time
“suffers from tepid direction and a superficial and misleading interpretation of history.”
Akhil Gupta·The Threepenny Review
Genres
Biography, Drama, History
Cast & Crew
DirectorRichard Attenborough
StarringBen Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard
ComposerGeorge Fenton, Ravi Shankar
Gandhi
Academy Award × 8
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
What critics thought
Broadly praised on release and since, the film rests almost entirely on Ben Kingsley's performance, which drew near-unanimous admiration even from those who found Attenborough's direction workmanlike or overly reverential. The sharpest disagreements were not about the filmmaking craft but about the film's portrait of Gandhi himself — historians, anthropologists, and some journalists attacked it as hagiography that smoothed over inconvenient facts, while others saw that moral clarity as a feature rather than a flaw.
“There are very few movies that absolutely must be seen. Sir Richard Attenborough's Gandhi is one of them.”
Jack Kroll·Newsweek
“Kingsley is nothing short of astonishing.”
Richard Schickel·Time
“suffers from tepid direction and a superficial and misleading interpretation of history.”
Akhil Gupta·The Threepenny Review
Genres
Biography, Drama, History
Cast & Crew
DirectorRichard Attenborough
StarringBen Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard
ComposerGeorge Fenton, Ravi Shankar
Rent/Purchase