A brilliant portrait of a remarkable man.

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2000)

Gandhi, because of it subject matter, and the large production values, became considered as one of the major British films (most successful for awards, anyway) of the decade. Its subject is of an Indian spiritual leader, almost forgotten by modern Western youth culture, who not only preached a more sophisticated and forceful vision of the pacifist ethic than ever 'flowered' in the 60s, but used to help liberate his country and change its political history. This is the sweep, the epic sweep, of Gandhi - and it delivers. Featuring some inspired, if historically inaccurate (such as the refugees flowing past one another), images Attenborough strikes a chord which, in many British people at least, offers a poiniant and startling contrast to the glory days of Empire. Featuring the whos who of British acting, the cast is uniformly terrific - with Kingsley's most powerful performance of his impressive career. It does however strike me as ironic that the greatest freedom fighter against British colonialism and imperialism is played by a British actor - hardly a fitting epitaph to a man who made it his life's work to reduce British influence in his life and country. Apart from this (personal) niggle, Gandhi is a truly epic and breathtaking film of the best kind - a film who's altruistic motives and lingering images are not lessened by the blatant self congratulation of the Oscars.