And it's time for yet another Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
The 2026 ceremony may be in the history books but that doesn't mean we can't still have fun. Today's subject is the 1982 epic biographical drama that won the Best Picture trophy, Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley in the role that also won him the gold statuette.
Gandhi covers the rise of India's famed spiritual leader and activist, and his decades-long efforts to free his home country from British rule, without the use of violence. After a prologue that depicts his 1948 assassination, we circle back to his time as a young, idealistic attorney living in turn-of-the-century South Africa where, despite his station as an educated man, he is still treated as a second-class citizen due to his race. He quickly becomes involved in local activism, staging a demonstration where Indian residents burn their required ID cards and face imprisonment. He catches the attention of like-minded Indian activists and reporters, and by the time he returns home some years later he is greeted as a celebrity. Over the next three decades he champions Indian independence through peaceful non-cooperation and a vow of poverty, dressing only in minimalistic, handmade clothes, quietly enduring British military violence at protest marches, and journeying to the ocean to sift salt and sell it to fellow natives (British law forbade the sale of salt by anyone but British-owned distributors). The colonialist government takes notice and numerous acts of violence erupt on both sides, most notably the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where a rogue British colonel orders his men to fire relentlessly on a gathering of protesters. In 1947 after years of negotiations, India and Pakistan are finally freed from British rule, but find themselves at odds over religious beliefs, and a year later Gandhi is shot by a Hindu nationalist.
This all sounds fairly dry written out as a synopsis, but Attenborough keeps our attention by focusing on the man and his great humanity. Like MLK after him, Gandhi had the discipline to understand that the oppressive regime he was fighting against would always look for an excuse, any excuse, to enact terrible violence against his people and thus rid themselves of dissenters. By resisting the temptation to punch back, his tactics left the British government with their dicks in the wind so to speak, and ultimately it became a senseless, costly endeavor for them to continue trying to enforce their will.
Ben Kingsley absolutely vanishes into the character to the point we forget we're watching an actor portraying Mahatma Gandhi. His performance is so thorough it often feels like an insider documentary about the man. Amazingly this was only the second feature film for the seasoned stage and TV actor, thus the filmmakers surrounded him with recognizable faces like John Gielgud, Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen, and Trevor Howard. The presence of these known actors fortunately doesn't distract from the film's immersive quality, serving instead to depict their characters in shorthand as it were.
Behind the camera were two veteran cinematographers, Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor, whose work here gives Gandhi the epic scope it deserves. The picturesque locations provide no shortage of stunning backdrops, lending a David Lean-esque splendor to the production (Coincidentally Lean had planned to make a Gandhi biopic in the early 1960s but opted for Lawrence of Arabia instead). This is a beautifully shot film.
For years I resisted viewing this movie, expecting a joyless, boring historical document, but Attenborough and his collaborators made this a remarkably relatable human story about speaking truth to power and refusing to lay down for injustice. Driven by a career-making lead performance, Gandhi still resonates four-plus decades later as our society continues to struggle against violent oppression. What a magnificent achievement.
I give Gandhi **** out of ****.
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