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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Gandhi (1982)

Gandhi (1982)

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Released 5-Feb-2002

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Interviews-Cast-Ben Kingsley Talks About Gandhi
Gallery-The Making Of Gandhi Photo Montage
Notes-The Words Of Mahata Gandhi
Featurette-Newsreel Footage (4)
Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1982
Running Time 183:25
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (109:16) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Richard Attenborough
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Ben Kingsley
Candice Bergen
Edward Fox
John Gielgud
Trevor Howard
John Mills
Martin Sheen
Case Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI $36.95 Music George Fenton
Ravi Shankar


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
German
Dutch
Arabic
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Icelandic
Norwegian
Swedish
Turkish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Gandhi mythologizes the life of one Mohandas K. Gandhi, a small time Indian lawyer who eventually led his country to freedom and independence from British rule, which he did without the use of arms or resorting to violence. The battles he fought were moral, political and symbolic. His weapon was non-violent civil disobedience. His army were the people of India - they challenged the might and power of the British Empire at its peak, and forced the British to withdraw from India. This film is about the life and times of the man himself, from his days in South Africa fighting for the civil rights of his countrymen working in a racist colonial environment, his transformation into a political and spiritual leader, and eventually his assassination by a religious fanatic (this is not a "plot spoiler" because the film starts with the assassination and then jumps back in time).

    It has become somewhat fashionable to disparage director Richard Attenborough's epic biographical film, as a reaction against the hype and mystique surrounding it. It won no less than eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor not to mention Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing and even Best Set Decoration and Best Costume Design. In addition, it won five BAFTAs (including the holy trinity of Best Film, Director and Actor) and five Golden Globes. With an impressive list of credentials like that, it is inevitable that it became a target for the "tall poppy syndrome."

    And there is certainly much to criticize. The late Pauline Kael slammed the movie - saying she left the theatre pretty much feeling "... the way the British must have when they left India: exhausted and relieved." Director Richard Attenborough clearly idolizes the man, and treats his subject matter with reverence - the audience is supposed to watch the film as a religious experience. The many faults of the man are brushed aside or ignored, instead we get to see Gandhi as some sort of modern day Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed combined. In a broad sweeping saga such as this, there is little time to 'waste' on detail, characterization and individual motivations. Often all we get are actors portraying Historical Figures acting out their duly assigned roles in Momentous Historical Events.

    How did General Dyer (Edward Fox) feel when he ordered the his troops to fire at unarmed Indian protesters in Amritsar? Does he regret his action, or is he unrepentant? Well, his quivering lips hint volumes during the investigative hearing, but they do no more than hint at his innermost thoughts. Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Alyque Padamsee) is no more than a one dimensional character, and portrayed as "baddie" at that (over the protestations of many Pakistanis who felt that Richard had unjustly portrayed their father figure and national hero as some sort of scheming, corrupt and dapper manipulator next to the holy, reverential and butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth Gandhi).

    However, despite all these shortcomings, the whole is greater than the sum of its many parts (good and bad) and the film remains one of the most powerful films of our time, and one of my personal favourites. Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Gandhi is superb and uncannily accurate and he fully deserves his numerous Best Actor awards for his role in the film. The supporting characters, including well-known Indian actors such as Sardar Patel (Saeed Jaffrey), Pandit Nehru (Roshan Seth), and Kasturba Gandhi (Rohini Hattangadi) are clearly playing their roles as if they believe that it is their patriotic duty to give the best performances of their lives.

    There are moments of true grandeur and beauty in this film. The panoramic dimensions and sheer beauty and diversity of India is captured well in widescreen glory. Moments such as the dramatic march to the ocean, the row of Indians of all races/castes/religions lining up to be beaten by British troops at the Dharasana saltworks - some of these scenes are forever burned into my consciousness. In addition, we get some fascinating insights into the man himself, and delightful vignettes with some cameo characters, including Margaret Bourke-White (Candice Bergen), Lord Irwin (John Gielgud), Charlie Andrews (Ian Charleson, from Chariots of Fire), Kinnoch (Nigel Hawthorne, from Yes, Minister), and Colin the South African boy who confronted Gandhi and Charlie in the street (Daniel Day-Lewis).

    And of course there is the famous scene of Gandhi's funeral march, featuring no less than 300,000 extras (about 200,000 were volunteers and 94,560 were paid a small fee), filmed on 31 January 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Ghandi's funeral. Eleven camera crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to 125 seconds in the final release.

    In short, this is a film you must watch at least once. In terms of giving hope and inspiration, and showing us what humanity is capable of, it is definitely food for the soul.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    I have been looking forward for a long time to rewatching Gandhi in its widescreen glory after years of watching it in Pan & Scan on TV. This transfer presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 enhancement.

    For a film that is almost twenty years old, the condition of the film stock is not too bad and may have been restored. Grain threatens to assert itself in various places but never quite gets the courage. There are also various film marks here and there (mainly black scratches and marks), but all in all I was very pleased with the quality of the film source.

    I was less pleased with the quality of the transfer. I realise it's a real challenge to try and fit a film over three hours long onto a single side of a DVD (even if it is dual-layered), together with multiple audio tracks, subtitle tracks and over 30 minutes of extras. In this case something had to give, and it's the transfer rate. The transfer cries for more bandwidth, as there are numerous and persistent instances of pixelization in nearly all the scenes. The pixelization is very obvious if you look closely at background objects and diagonal edges (even when you take into account the intentional blurring of some background scenes through the use of aperture settings in the camera during shooting). You can even see the pixelization in the opening titles and various captions throughout the film.

    I also own the Region 1 release of this disc, and direct comparison between the two discs will highlight the pixelization in the Region 4 release even more. Not that the Region 1 release was perfect - it overapplies edge enhancement and suffers from haloing throughout the film. My point is that the pixelization in the Region 4 release is so pronounced I wouldn't even be able to tell whether edge-enhancement has been applied or not.

    In other respects, the transfer is not too shabby. Colours are reasonably bright and cheerful, though just a tad muted compared to recently released films, and black levels are very good. Once you take pixelization into account, detail levels are generally high. For example, at 53:47-54:02 you can just see the tiny black speck of a car making its way across the landscape. The crowd scenes are of course fantastic - there's nothing like knowing that we are watching hundreds and thousands of tiny little real humans on screen instead of digitally created effects.

    There are a reasonably generous selection of English and foreign language subtitle tracks accompanying the film. I turned on the English subtitle track briefly to verify its presence.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs at 109:16 just prior to a scene change as the camera closes in on Gandhi and Nehru. It's not a bad place for a scene change and is well executed as the DVD player barely pauses, but a much better place would have been during the intermission point which occurs about halfway into the film.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio tracks on this disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kb/s), plus French and German Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192 Kb/s) audio tracks. I listened only to the English audio track.

    Given that the initial theatrical release was in Dolby Stereo, I was surprised to see a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which I suspect must have been sourced from the 70mm 6 channel audio mix.

    Due to the age of the film, the quality of the audio track can only be described as mediocre to fair. The sound track is quite boomy in the midrange, and lacks significant high frequency and low frequency content. Loud passages, especially featuring lots of humans shouting, sound slightly distorted, such as the crowd riot scene around 101:45 onwards.

    The Region 1 release has an audio track that shares some similar faults, but sounds slightly more balanced and less boomy.

    Despite the boominess of the sound track, dialogue comes across rather well and is synchronised to the film. There are many instances of low level dialogue in the film, such as those of Gandhi whispering during his fasts, and I am pleased to report that dialogue was at all times intelligible. In fact, I was able to hear lines I wouldn't be able to decipher on a TV broadcast.

    As is typical for 70mm epic films, the dialogue follows the position of characters on-screen so there are instances of dialogue coming from the left and right as well as from the centre. Sound effects likewise are well positioned across the front soundstage and there are numerous instances of sound (such as birds, moving vehicles etc.) panning across the front speakers. This is a very front focused sound track and there is not much activity in the rear speakers, and I felt the film missed many opportunities to integrate the viewer into the scene by distributing ambient sounds across all speakers. The only instance of rear-directed Foley effects that I recall is the sound of the train being panned from front to rear around 51:15.

    The original music score on the other hand is well distributed across all speakers. The LFE track was silent throughout most of the film apart from the India-Pakistan border scene from 155:59 onwards.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    This DVD contains a reasonable number of extras, however is sorely missing an audio commentary track or two. I would have loved to hear director Richard Attenborough commenting on the film, or even a Historical Figures commentary like that found on Thirteen Days. I wished they had packaged the DVD as a collector's edition two-disc special with dts sound and a good retrospective documentary. Come on Columbia, if Close Encounters and Gladiator is worthy of the two disc treatment (not mention The Mummy times two) surely this film is more than deserving?

Menu

    The DVD starts by playing the Columbia Tristar logo (non 16x9 enhanced), then plays a menu introduction consisting of excerpts from the film in 2.35:1 16x9 enhanced. The main menu is 16x9 enhanced and features audio and animation.

Interview - Cast - Ben Kingsley Talks About Gandhi (19:21)

    This is a edited retrospective interview with Ben Kingsley reminiscing about the casting process, and his memories of his participation in the film, interspersed with excerpts from the film. This is probably the closest we we will get to an audio commentary track on this disc, so it is most welcome. It is presented in full frame (apart from excerpts from the film which are in Pan & Scan) and Dolby Digital 2.0.

Gallery - The Making Of Gandhi Photo Montage (5:00)

    This is a montage of various black and white and colour photographs of the cast displayed as a full frame video zooming in and out of each photograph and cross fading across photographs, accompanied by background music (from the film soundtrack) in Dolby Digital 2.0. Many of the colour photographs suffer from grain, poor black levels and even chroma smearing.

Notes - The Words Of Mahatma Gandhi (1:56)

    This is a selection of quotations by Mahatma Gandhi displayed as a full frame video zooming in and out of black text on a gray background with a paper texture, accompanied by background music (from the film soundtrack) in Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette-Newsreel Footage (4)

    This is a set of four original newsreel footage featuring Mahatma Gandhi, displayed in a full frame aspect ratio and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono:

    Due to the age of the newsreels, it is not surprising that they suffer from a number of defects, including film marks, graininess, poor black levels and the first newsreel features rather shocking telecine wobble.

Filmographies-Cast & Crew

    This is a number of stills providing the filmographies of:

Theatrical Trailer (4:48)

    This is a fairly long theatrical trailer, presented in 2.35:1 but without 16x9 enhancement and Dolby Digital 2.0. Surprisingly the quality of the transfer is quite decent, it wouldn't look too out of place in a modern cinema.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    Both versions appear to be substantially the same. However, I would recommend the Region 1 version due to the better audio and video transfer.

Summary

    Gandhi is a must-watch epic biographical film about the life and times of the man who led his country to independence without resorting to violence. It features a video transfer that suffers from pixelization due to over-compression, and a mediocre audio transfer, but surprisingly in Dolby Digital 5.1. Extras are reasonable, but an audio commentary track or two is sorely missed.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Christine Tham (read my biography)
Saturday, December 22, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-626D, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVR-3300
SpeakersFront and rears: B&W CDM7NT; centre: B&W CDMCNT; subwoofer: B&W ASW2500

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