Deserves to be as highly regarded as it is

Rating: Null/10 (6 February 2006)

As a young man, Gandhi travelled to South Africa to take up a position as a lawyer. However when he is thrown off the train for refusing to get his "black arse" out of the first class carriages, he finds that he has become a third class citizen. With the blessing of his employer, Gandhi resolves to create a stir and get the bad treatment of Indians in South Africa changed to be equal in the law to the English people. Burning passes is the first step towards a life spent in peaceful protest, massive social change and ultimate assassination.
Taking on the unenviable task of doing justice to the life of Gandhi in a matter of three hours, Richard Attenborough has produced a professional film that presents the story in an engaging, easy to follow way that sees the hours slip effortlessly by. It is easy to suggest that the worthiness of the story tells itself but in reality this must have been a nightmare to script and then to edit into a film that has an impact, flows but yet still does the subject justice  that it does all these is to its credit. The story picks the highlights of his life and moves it forward well; one criticism is perhaps the fact that it doesn't totally convey the sacrifice of a lifetime given over to the struggle but in fairness it gets as close as it was ever going to get. Starting at the end the film shows us the growth of Gandhi and it does it very slickly. Attenborough's direction is strong and the use of locations is impressive  the film never really loses the sense of place, time or people that it creates from the very start.
The cast greatly helps this sense of place and they are led by a fantastic performance from Ben Kingsley, who marked this film as the one he will always be best known for no matter what else he does. It helps that he resembles Gandhi and that he can do the accent but his performance is still suitable for the man and manages to come across as a person without losing the saintly air he has around him. He is well supported by a host of Indian actors (Om Puri, Jaffrey etc) and extras as well as Western stars including Fox, Gielgud, Mills, Sheen, Hawthorne, Griffiths and a young Day-Lewis; however there is never any doubt that he is he star of this film and he never disappoints.
Overall this film has a high reputation and nothing I can say can add to it. It is highly regarded and a simple viewing will tell you why  it looks great, does a great job with period, a great job with condensing the story and generally very strong performances with Kingsley deservedly winning many awards for it. Well worth seeing, especially if you don't know anything about Gandhi's life.