Long, but worth watching

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2011)

Spanning from his days as a student in South Africa to his assassination in India, "Gandhi" recounts several events of the man's life. In South Africa, Gandhi (played terrifically by Ben Kingsley) fights against discrimination laws against Indians, but instructs his followers to fight non-violently. This will set a precedent for his return to India, where he travels the country, observes the state of the people, and takes on the discriminatory British laws one by one. Time and time again, the British authorities try to bring him down, but Gandhi continually growing support from his people make it harder to suppress his demands. However, when India's independence is increasingly becoming a reality, so is the fact that India could partition into two nations because of religious differences, something Gandhi fiercely opposes and has trouble trying to control.
Of all the compliments and accolades that have gone to this movie, the most seem to be directed at Ben Kingsley, and for good reason. He is incredibly convincing as Gandhi, showing the great gravitas the man could hold when he was leading demonstrations of thousands. He also shows how committed Gandhi was to his views. Take, for example, the moment when a his friend Walker (Martin Sheen) comments to him, "You're an ambitious man," and Gandhi replies, "I hope not." His response, though not forceful, still hits an odd nerve, as you wonder how someone who wants equality for his people in such a segregated state could not consider himself "ambitious." And yet, that response makes the rest of his actions in the movie make that much more sense. Though he is deeply committed to equality (and later, independence), he also believes it's an inherent right, not something you're born without. It's kind of surprising that Kingsley's track record after this film has been rather erratic, although he did have good turns in "Schindler's List" and "Shutter Island."
Director Richard Attenborough wastes as few details as possible about Gandhi's life (there's even a title card early in the picture that acknowledges that not all of his life could be compressed into one movie). This, for the most part, is a good choice, since you're allowed to gradually see and understand how Gandhi got India to break away from Great Britain, and, eventually, struggled to keep it one nation. For the first 140 minutes or so, the film is pretty well paced, although it's reverential attitude towards Gandhi did make me wonder if there was something more complex behind his character. The last 40 minutes, while they make the movie drag, do at least challenge Gandhi's notions, as he is forced to confront the fact that his intelligent speeches and periods of long fasting will not be enough to alleviate a long religious conflict between Muslims and Hindus (which lead to the creation of Pakistan). Notice how, when Gandhi claims to be a man of all faiths, a Hindu, not a Muslim, later assassinated him.
Though I think some trimming of the time could have helped, this is nonetheless a good looking and well acted epic and also intelligently addresses some issues that still affect us today. Do tyrants always fall? Or are the people who stand against them bound to fall as well? For me, that seemed to be the question the film posed at the end.