Gandhi, the peace himself

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2018)

To win a war against a superior force, you don't necessarily need weapons. That's exactly the method Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi and his followers employed to evict the British Empire from their homeland, India. The film "Gandhi" tells the life of this great man who is also called the father of India. As he fought for independence and equal rights, he was one of the most influential people of his time.
"Oh God" - This were Gandhi's last words when he was shot by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. His assassination is the beginning of the film and shows realistically how his followers were mourning his death. After this introduction, the film jumps to Gandhi's youth showing him at the beginning of his rise, in South Africa in 1893. Although the film is quite old, it is capable of showing Gandhi's message clearly to the viewers. This makes the film even more special because nowadays most films don't possess a message from which the viewers can learn. Another point I very much liked about "Gandhi" is that it has the ability to directly amidst the viewer into the events, which surprised me a lot because I would never have expected this from such an old film. This film also shows that you needn't employ a huge amount of special effects to create an impressing film. Another huge factor which makes this film remarkable is the magnificent performance of Sir Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. The 190 minutes running time display many scenes which shaped Gandhi's development being the saviour of the Indians, but also the suffering which his non-violent protests caused, e.g. his multiple imprisonments or the sacrifices of many Indians. Because "Gandhi" is very informative in each of its scenes, I can claim that I can give a detailed account of his life due to this masterpiece. Of course, the film contains some disturbing aspects: the sound quality is bad although this is normal for a film at this time; some scenes have literally no content at the first sight, like for example shots of the landscape or a black screen with only music in the background and could bore or confuse the viewers.
Nevertheless, I would say that this film is very well executed for a film at this time and it manages to perfectly show the life of Mahatma Gandhi and his remarkable philosophy of satyagraha (His non-violent way of protesting and redressing wrongs). Therefore I really recommend this film to everyone who wants to know something about Gandhi or is interested in history. I give this film 9 out of 10 stars!