Gandhi

The life of a man who fought without needing to fight. I watched the epic biographical film Gandhi, released on December 8, 1982 and based on real events. Directed by Richard Attenborough, it takes place early on in South Africa and mostly in India. Starring Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, and Roshan Seth, it takes place from 1893-1948 and is rated PG, although this is before PG-13 was created.

This true story movie follows the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi. Following a series of successful peaceful protests he did in South Africa to gain rights for Indian people, he returned home to India. Seeing how the people are under the rule of the British Empire, Gandhi decides to lead protests to gain Indian independence. Just like his work in South Africa, Gandhi leads peaceful protests, hoping to achieve his goal without needing to resort to violence. Will Gandhi achieve all he is trying to achieve?

In wanting to learn more about Gandhi’s life, I sought out this movie. This truly is one of the great movies and there is much for me to talk about. For the most part, this film is accurate to the life of Gandhi. Even with a runtime of 3 hours and 11 minutes, they could not possibly capture his whole life, which is understandable. They mainly focus on his protest work. Living in a time where peaceful protesting is far more common, it is inspiring to watch the man who helped influence that. One of the criticisms people have about this movie is that they felt like it was too long and could get boring. I have to disagree with that, as I felt the long runtime was necessary to tell his story properly and it did not feel that long to me. Something I can criticize is that they only bring up Gandhi’s best qualities, completely ignoring any bad qualities he had in real life. While focusing on the good he did is certainly what people wanted, it may have helped to portray the full picture of the man he was in order to make him more human. The last point about the story is focused on religion. Both the real Gandhi and this movie advocate for not just religious tolerance, but also an embracing of all faiths in order to understand how similar they are. With both Hinduism and Islam playing major roles, in addition to Christianity, Judaism, and Sikhism also being mentioned, the movie depicts a deep understanding of faith.

They also manage to establish a visual style. There are several sets that try to replicate what these areas would have looked like at the time. It also helps that India is a visually pleasing location to film a movie with its natural beauty and interesting architecture. The visual style is even more impressive when you know the troubled history of this movie in that Richard Attenborough was tasked with making it as early as 1962, but due to a lack of funding, he was not able to start until 1980. They manage to put the money to good use. The most impressive aspect of this in the movie is a particular scene that managed to get 300,000 extras. As far as I know, no other film has ever had that many actors. They showed up simply because they wanted to do it as a honor to Gandhi’s memory, which helped the film not only years before they could CGI a crowd in, but also better than CGI.

When it comes to the acting, I have to address a certain controversy of the movie first. To play Gandhi, Ben Kingsley wore brownface. Technically, he is of Indian descent, but he is also light skinned. Obviously, this would never be allowed today. It is a racist practice that has someone imitate someone of a race that is not their own. It also denies the role to someone of that actual race. This was just more of a common practice at the time that was done without thinking about the immoral nature of it. However, since Ben Kingsley is Indian and it was done to make the actor look as much like Gandhi as possible, I do not find it as problematic. Now, having said of all this, Ben Kingsley’s performance is still something to behold. He captures the personality of Gandhi with his moral duty of peace and the charm he brought to his followers. In fact, he ended up looking so much like Gandhi, that several people in India who saw him actually thought they were seeing Gandhi’s ghost. Ben Kingsley is recognizable as one of the more sophisticated actors nowadays, with this being the role that made him famous. In fact, it is possibly the best performance he ever gave. Everyone else in the movie gives a good performance too, but Ben Kingsley is the one that stands out.

Overall, this is an achievement in filmmaking. While they could have portrayed both the good and bad about Gandhi, and the poorly aged racial technique is somewhat distracting, this is still an effective start to learning about this man’s life. It ended up sweeping the Academy Awards. In addition to being nominated for Best Makeup, Best Original Score, and Best Sound, it also ended up winning for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Ben Kingsley), Best Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing. Those results show how much the hard work of this film won everyone over. Whether for learning the true story or just for amazing filmmaking, this is a strongly recommended watch.

Gandhi sought to achieve Indian independence from the British Empire through his tactics of peaceful protest. While the concept certainly existed centuries before Gandhi, the way he implemented it has inspired many people around the world. Even Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired by his work, which led to him using peaceful protests in America for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. If you have not read my review on the movie Selma, which was about Martin Luther King Jr., that I wrote in February, I recommend you read it by clicking this link.

Considering all of this, I wanted to talk about peaceful protest. Protest is a valid way to advocate for change when oppressors are being unfair and/or illegally treating people. I notice that so many people seem to be under the idea that peaceful protest is ineffective and that violent protest is the only way to make change. I have to say that with everything I have learned, I respectfully disagree. Peaceful protest is not always effective, with it often taking longer than people would want, but I still view it as the best way to make a difference. Peaceful protests are actually effective more times than violent protests are. Violent protesting has the risk of instead making less people support your cause because they just see aggressors causing damage. On top of that, there are many cases where innocent people who do not support what is being protested have been injured or even killed by violent protest. I think violent protest, despite having worked at times, is a very bad thing that I do not agree with. It hurts your cause and gets innocent people caught up in the mess. Peaceful protest, on the other hand, gives them the moral high ground and can gain support if the oppressors react violently to them. It also ensures you can fight for social justice without needing to hurt anyone.

Apart from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., I decided to name some other examples of peaceful protesters to show it is more effective than you think. Cesar Chavez in America in the 1960s and 1970s did peaceful protests to get better rights for farm workers. William Thomas and Concepción Picciotto in America started the White House Peace Vigil peaceful protests in 1981 protesting nuclear weapons, with their work still being impactful today despite their deaths. Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan since 2008 has held peaceful protests for womens’ rights. Greta Thunberg in Sweden since 2018 has held peaceful protests to address climate change. All of these wonderful people I have named may not have achieved total change, but any change they achieved is still significant.

Peaceful protesting takes time. This is true, but it is far more effective than given credit for. No one has to peacefully protest, whether for health, anxiety, or other personal reasons. Those are understandable. I am the same way, which is why I write these issues in my reviews. There are certainly other ways to help out if you cannot peacefully protest. However, if you are simply being put off because you do not think it is effective and therefore there is no point, I encourage you to change your view. You can help make a difference. The more people do it, the closer we get to change happening. I also encourage you to do research to find out about even more amazing peaceful protesters. So, whatever social issue there is you are most passionate about changing, I say have the confidence to get out there and make a difference.