The running time is 3 hrs. 11 mins..
Gandhi obviously tells the story of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and his dream of a nonviolent and peaceful solution to form a free India out from under the British regime. The film opens with a scene recreating Gandhi’s funeral procession and it immediately lets you know what you are in for, a grand epic of a little man that changed the world. The scene is packed with over 400,000 people and after watching the featurette on the funeral you will learn that 100,000 or so people weren’t even able to make it due to a bus strike. It is easily the largest gathering of people for a movie and thanks to CGI we will never see it duplicated, at least not with real people.
Playing Gandhi is Sir Ben Kingsley, who is oddly absent from the special features outside of a vintage interview, and he so closely mirrors the images of Gandhi we have all seen it is almost spooky. This was the first time I have ever seen Gandhi and for so long I never really knew what all the fuss over Kingsley really was. He was pretty good in House of Sand and Fog, made an impressive transformation in Oliver Twist, had an unimpressive part in Lucky Number Slevin, and really wasn’t the focus of attention in Schindler’s List. Those are the Kingsley films I have seen and remember him in, but Gandhi is now the film I will know him for, he is actually that good. From the look all the way down to mannerisms and the way he walks, playing Gandhi from his late 20s to his death Kingsley never misses a step.
The cast is also made up of such names as John Gielgud, Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen and if you look closely you will see a 35-year-old John Ratzenberger driving Candice to meet the Mahatma. Directed by Richard Attenborough it is superbly cast and a grand epic you certainly should own if you are any fan of film.
As for this 25th Anniversary DVD you get the film with a short introduction by Attenborough along with a brand new audio commentary by the director. Disc two is where you get the really goodies however as Attenborough has a hard time filling the 191 minute running time and his age really shows at times. However, he is much better in the short stints in the featurettes on the second disc.
Disc two carries nine featurettes, a vintage group of newsreel footage and an old interview with Kingsley. The newsreel is interesting for a minute, the interview is a bit self congratulatory and the featurettes are very good. The featurettes look at the early stages of the film, the casting process, a look at Kingsley’s performance, the casting of little-known at the time Geraldine James as Madeleine Slade an English woman that dedicated her life to Gandhi and set design looks with Stuart Craig (Harry Potter films). The featurettes all include words from Attenborough and there is one specifically dedicated to the words of Gandhi. Finally there is a complete featurette dedicated to the funeral scene I mentioned earlier where Attenborough also describes one shot of the scene that was ruined by one young extra making a funny face right in the camera. It still sounds like Attenborough wants to strangle him.
This is a classic movie and a great special edition. The featurettes are short and to the point and don’t carry on past a point where you would rather be doing something else, and this is coming from someone that went straight from watching the 3 hour and 10 minute film to the second disc and soaked it all in. You will like this film and if you don’t you probably aren’t reading this review.