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Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: CDR 10138
- Running time: 184 minutes
- Year: 1982
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, French, German
- Subtitles: 14 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Trailer, Filmographies, Ben Kingsley talks about Gandhi, The Making of Gandhi Photo Montage, The Words of Mahatma Gandhi, Newsreel Footage
Director:
- Richard Attenborough
(A Bridge Too Far, Chaplin, A Chorus Line, Cry Freedom, Gandhi, Grey Owl, In Love and War, Magic, Oh! What a Lovely War, Shadowlands, Young Winston)
Producer:
- Richard Attenborough
Screenplay:
- John Briley
Music:
- George Fenton and Ravi Shankar
Cast:
- Mahatma Gandhi: Ben Kingsley
Margaret Bourke-White: Candice Bergen
General Dyer: Edward Fox
Lord Irwin: John Gielgud
Judge Broomfield: Trevor Howard
The Viceroy: John Mills
Vince Walker, reporter New York Times: Martin Sheen
Rev. Charlie Andrews: Ian Charleson
Sardar Patel: Saeed Jaffrey
Mirabehn: Geraldine James
Senior Police Officer Fields: Ian Bannen
Collins: Richard Griffiths
Kinnoch: Nigel Hawthorne
Sir George Hodge: Michael Hordern
Nahari: Om Puri
Gandhi was the first time I’d heard of Ben Kingsley as he portrayed the real-life pacifist Indian lawyer-cum-leader with more quotable quotes than Oscar Wilde arriving in India which is struggling to free itself from the rule of the British. Like any role played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gandhi arrives to take out the trash, but unlike Arnie, Gandhi says it must be achieved by him telling everyone what to do and if that doesn’t work, he’ll fast and will even go so far as letting that kill him if need be.
The film takes in the horrific massacre at Amritsar where the British opened fire on 15,000 unarmed men, women and children, plus the dramatic march to the sea where Gandhi led thousands of his fellow men to prove that sea salt belongs to everyone and not just the British, but at over three hours in length it goes on a bit and isn’t a film you can put on for a quick watch and at the end of the day, you’ll never stop all the nutters from being violent since you can only help those who’ll help themselves.
The best thing about it is its cast, which includes Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Martin Sheen, Saeed Jaffrey, Geraldine James, Richard Griffiths, Nigel Hawthorne, Om Puri as well as a smaller role for John Savident, aka Fred in Coronation Street, Daniel Day-Lewis, the Comic Strip’s Daniel Peacock and another underrated British actor, Ray Burdis.
And Railtrack think they have problems. Apart from a few flecks and minor dropouts throughout the 19-year-old print, the quality’s superb. Presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, it is anamorphic and the average bitrate is 4.48Mb/s, briefly peaking above 8Mb/s.
The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English only, with French and German left in surround sound. It’s not a film that relies upon multi-channel sound, though and when fights break out, a train whistle sounds or something else loud happens, it all comes across as a little forced.
The extras include a five-minute Trailer (well, it is a long story), Filmographies for the main cast members and director, as well as a 20-minute piece, Ben Kingsley talks about Gandhi, mentioning not only his character but how the film itself was put together.
The Making of Gandhi Photo Montage runs for five minutes and features many on-set pictures, the Newsreel Footage is ten minutes in four parts showing Gandhi going to England, his farewell talk in Europe, his beginning his death-fast and footage of the first talking picture he ever made. Finally, The Words of Mahatma Gandhi is two minutes of his quotes set to music.
As this is a Columbia DVD we have the usual 28 chapters and subtitles in 14 languages : English, French, German, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Arabic, Hindi, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Greek and Hebrew. The main menu is nicely animated and scored with music from the film. The screenwipes to the other, static and silent, menus are impressive.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.