The Long and Short of It: 'Gandhi'
Illustration by Jenn Marie Harmeson
In "The Long and Short of It" series, Sam Watermeier writes concise reviews of long epics he's been putting off watching for years. These are the movies that came in bulky two-tape boxes back when VHS was all the rage. This bi-weekly series isn't about watching Sam torture himself; it's about watching him experience long-beloved films for the first time.
"No man's life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one's way to the heart of the man."
This title card perfectly sets the tone for Sir Richard Attenborough's 1982 epic, "Gandhi." The film has a massive scope, but it never loses sight of its linchpin — the flesh-and-blood man behind the legend.
We first see Mahatma Gandhi (Ben Kingsley) as a spunky lawyer in South Africa, and we watch him turn into the mythic leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. It's a grand, ambitious biopic, tracking Gandhi from 1893 all the way up to his funeral in 1948.
Gandhi's resistance to the oppressive British Empire starts in South Africa, after British legislation calls for Indians to be fingerprinted, registered and monitored closely like criminals. This law, imposed by General Jan Smuts, also deems any marriage other than a Christian one invalid.
"We are Hindu and Muslim, children of God, each one of us. Let us take a solemn oath, in His name, that come what may we will not submit to this law," Gandhi says in a fiery speech that feels eerily relevant now, in the wake of President Trump's Muslim ban and preferential treatment of Christians. Gandhi's statement here falls hard on our ears as a stark reminder of history doomed to repeat itself.
The film follows Gandhi from South Africa back to India, where he lives in poverty to truly understand this country whose "politics are confined to bread and salt." As he grows into a godlike figure, he shrinks from sickness, starving himself in an effort to harvest peace. A particularly powerful scene finds a Hindu man desperately trying to feed Gandhi during his fast amid the civil war between Hindus and Muslims. Here, the film emerges as a poignant portrait of a man whose vulnerability inspired and united a nation.
Kingsley anchors the sprawling epic with his elegantly understated performance. He captures Gandhi's remarkable restraint while Attenborough reveals how his gentle voice echoed across the world. He makes us feel the magnitude of Gandhi's influence with breathtaking set-pieces that show off the thousands of people that gathered around the small yet iconic man.
"Gandhi" is at once quiet and thunderous, intimate and larger than life. It's an Old Hollywood epic with an indie sensibility. You'll gaze with wonder at the grandeur on screen — and think about the humanity behind the spectacle long after it fades to black.