Gandhi, 1982.
Directed by Richard Attenborough.
Starring Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, and Martin Sheen.
SYNOPSIS:
Previously found only in the Columbia Classics: Volume 1 set, the 4K Ultra HD version of Gandhi, Richard Attenborough’s epic classic, arrives in a standalone Steelbook edition. You’ll find four discs here with a stunning copy of the movie in 4K, another copy in 2K, and a code for a digital copy. Highly recommended.
As biopics go, Amadeus is probably still my favorite, but Gandhi is a strong contender too. Released in 1982, this sweeping epic by director Richard Attenborough features Ben Kingsley in the title role, charting Mohandas Gandhi’s path from lawyer championing civil rights in South Africa in 1893 to activist who helped liberate India in 1947.
The film clocks in at three hours and 11 minutes, including an intermission that’s been preserved on home video. Kingsley is, of course, sublime in the title role, and the supporting cast assembled around him is solid too. I suppose my only quibble with this movie, and it’s a very minor one, is that I wish more time had been spent exploring some of those secondary characters. I suppose there’s plenty of deleted footage somewhere, but I don’t know if it will ever be released (if it’s even still in decent shape).
This is the same 4K Ultra HD edition found in the Columbia Classics: Volume 1 set, with the film split across two 4K platters; two additional Blu-ray contain another copy of the movie and the bonus features, with a code for the edition edition thrown in too.
I hoped that the 4K Ultra HD format would mean the end of splitting a film across discs, but in this case, the extra bandwidth gained by doing so gives Gandhi plenty of room to breathe, so to speak. As I’ve said before with other movies released on the format, this edition is easily the last one needed on disc. If you could go back in time and compare this picture quality with what you’d find in your local theater, it would be on par, or perhaps even better.
The bulk of the extras are found on the second Blu-ray, all having been ported over from the original DVD release and thus shown in standard-definition. They include:
• Interviews (29:20 minutes): Kingsley and Attenborough are the main subjects of a trio of discussions about the movie.
• In Search of Gandhi (9:26): Attenborough gives his thoughts on the subject of this film.
• Looking Back (8:21): This retrospective piece examines the film’s legacy and notes, on the subject of deleted footage that I brought up earlier, the need to cut it down from an original four-hour runtime.
• Madeline Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad (9:41): I didn’t get into the secondary characters in my review, but Slade plays Mirabehn, a British woman who traveled to India to be with Gandhi during his struggle to liberate his country. She’s someone I would have liked to understand better in the film.
• Reflections on Ben (9:23): As the title suggests, this is a look at Kingsley’s performance.
• Shooting an Epic in India (17:56): Today, I imagine many of the sweeping shots of large crowds would leverage CGI, but back in the day, a filmmaker like Attenborough needed to assemble an army of extras and travel to the actual locations he wanted to use. This is a look back at that effort.
• Designing Gandhi (5:38): Sliced into three, this featurette examines the effort to transport the viewer back to the first half of the 20th century.
• The Funeral (13:34): Do we need a spoiler alert here? Probably not, since the movie starts at the end, with Gandhi’s assassination, and loops back around.
• The Words of Mahatma Gandhi (1:58): Some of Gandhi’s quotes are displayed onscreen here. His words are more relevant than ever.
• Newsreel Footage: Running close to ten minutes, this is a batch of old, old school newsreels, also known as the way people watched news before TVs were everywhere.
• The Making of Gandhi Photo Montage (5:24): A series of behind-the-scenes images set to music.
The first Blu-ray disc also contains a commentary track by Attenborough, who does a great job of discussing the film’s production in depth, along with Gandhi’s Legacy: A Picture-in-Graphics Track, which offers even more information. Attenborough also shot an introduction for the movie.
Finally, the second 4K Ultra HD disc serves up a pair of theatrical trailers.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
