A Passage to India
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Movie Reviews of A Passage to India
Movie Review: Rewarding to those who are Well Versed with the Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favourite novels in high school. It's a book on humanity stressing goodwill as a bridge in human communication. Ron's mother, Mrs Moore, instead was the supreme model of human understanding. She readily took off her shoes upon entering a mosque at night when there was scarcely any people around and when all British treaded upon practically everything that was local. It was also in her honour that the Bridge Party with the locals was arranged. She never saw the British Raj's attitude towards the locals appropriate. After her departure and at the trial of Dr Aziz, those who attended the court chanted, "Mrs Moore, Mrs Moore..." She became one of their goddesses. Years later when her younger son and daughter visited India and ran into Dr Aziz after his ordeal, they were nevertheless given special treatment...
Right inside the ring was, of course, Mr Fielding and Dr Aziz who all along showed much understanding instead of conflicts. They became friends and Dr Aziz even offered his stud to Fielding, the very one that he was in use of. It was until the hallucination of Miss Quested that Dr Aziz was taken aback. Fielding was a minority, but hat was the right start to human understanding. The Ron's boss was just in the background, no more important than the India Professor. Well, it's hard to say whether it's essentially an Indian or British novel.
The novel is so full of symbolism and imageries. There were substantial narratives every now and then and the decriptions were full of intricacies and the themes were rather estatic, broadly divided into several chopped up sections. It takes little imagination to think of what Marabar Caves have to offer in terms of drama. It's so dull and monotonous.
As such it's rather difficult to rendered this novel into a movie. David Lean showed more depth if not more resources in his treatment than Dr Zhivago. It's brilliant work if one is well versed with the novel itself and it's really rewarding. But with regret, as pointed out by some reviewers, the result may not be equally impressing. To say the least, the central theme is not dramatically attractive enough.
Movie Review: An excellent film exploring the complexities of...
Summary: 5 Stars
...Anglo/Asain relationships as does the novel. The central story is of the visit to a resident British Magistrate, Havers, of his Mother and Fiance from England,Ashcroft and Davis. The 2 women are intially excited by the prospect of visiting a foriegn land and latterly dissapointed if not disgusted by the colonization and treatment of the indigenious population by the resident British.
Pomposity, rudeness and the belief that all India needed was a British backbone are conveyed with chilling frankness. When the delighful Dr Aziz takes the women on a cave trip, trouble ensues when cultural nuances are misread by the sexually fraut and confused Ms Qestsed,Davis. The repurcussions are both enormous and overwhelming and seem to crystalise in an instant the differing passions of each nation and the abject failure to listen and communicate clearly because of pre-conceived ideas and prejudices.
The cast are outsatnding save for Guiness, who is frankly miscast and wasted here. The central women are excellent with Ashcroft being the stoic and sensible creature too polite to betray her true feelings to her British peers and yet understood by Indians becuase of her grace, calm and connection.
Davis is terrific as the fraut and cofused English girl, caught somewhere awkwardly between shy retiring Edwardian child and emancipated bright young thing.
The scenery is stunning and electric and the film seems to say as much to say about 1980's Anglo/Asian relations (10 years had passed since the first major wave of immigration to the UK from India and Africa when this film was made) as it does about those of the 1920's.
The resonance then and now, is the notion of communication versus stagnation and assumption, as so eloquently personfied by Ashcroft's Mrs Moore character. Superb end to a great career from Lean who intended to make Ghandi his follow up film, it was later made by Ateenborough following the death of Lean.
Movie Review: Despite the Passage of 20 years, this film still galvanizes
Summary: 5 Stars
A PASSAGE TO INDIA was made in 1984 and was hailed as David Lean's final epic and also criticized for its stance on colonialism. Now, twenty years later, people are still viewing this film and writing about it with such polarized stances that it seems to prove at least one point: agree or disagree with the story, this film has become iconic.
Based rather faithfully on EM Forster's novel, A PASSAGE TO INDIA examines the dichotomous roles of British colonialization of India and the force of impact of the longstanding occupation on not only the Indian population, but also on the British colonists who loved India and were dismayed by the conflict of political struggle. Forster, as usual, approaches the Macro with the Micro: the underlying disparity between the British and the Indians is brought into focus by the examination of relationships between 'opposing' sides. It is finally in a courtroom that the story gels and the results of history alter.
The cast is strong with especially notable characters created by Judy Davis, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox, Michael Culver, and Victor Banjeree. One will never understand why Lean cast Sir Alec Guinness as the Indian Godbole when there are so many fine Indian actors who could have made the role significant. For all of Guinness' talent he simply looks foolish in his makeup and demeanor.
Maurice Jarre contributes a fine musical score and the richness of color photography is in line with Lean's other epics. The film is long, yes, and there are times when those unfamiliar with Forster's novel would fault as cumbersome. But the very fact that this film continues to spark debate about the British/Indian duplicity is, to this reviewer, an indication of how fine and important - and durable! - this film truly is. Grady Harp, January 2005
Movie Review: psychology and meteo
Summary: 5 Stars
In `A Passage to India', director did something very antithetical to the earlier motion pictures he had produced. In `Dr. Zhivago' and `A Bridge over the River Kwai', he specializes in the filming of meteorological distinctions; from the Siberian colds to the thropical fever of Pasific regions(note that filming of Doctor Zhivago in Spain does not spoil this the least). However, meteorology is almost a personality in `A Passage to India'; but of a trivial nature. In the movie, a Brahmin(Alec Guinness) speaks of many phenomenological signs of karma and does not mention a certain specificity of the drought; however, on many occassions he strolls around barefooted and sits next to the pool, his legs ducked in the water. An Indian physician(Victor Banerjee) suffers from a seasonal fever and there mounted a large-sized fan over the banch in the court of the magistrate. There is almost always a situation of perspration and dehydration; followed by distress. Before the picnic at Marabar, there gone through the particulars of the refreshments of the picnic party, whisky and soda for the gentlemen and wine for the ladies. In a magnificient scene, Mrs. Moore dies on a ship back to Britian and they flip her off the board to the waters of the sea; symbolically back to the spiritual congregation of the dead. At the end, Indian physician notes that all this happened because an English lady could not brook a little midday sun(remember the song, `mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun'). This story considers the dialectics of moisture(here life and cultivation) and rut(basic or untamed sexualism), and partly politisizes Albert Camus's `Outsider' and its existantialism but in a very distinct method and dialogism.Movie Review: David Lean's Beautiful Swan Song
Summary: 5 Stars
"Passage to India" was one of the greatest films produced in the Reagan era. It also happens to be the final film of one of cinema's most honered craftsmen, Sir David Lean, who is considered by many to be the greatest British director of all-time. This film may not be on the level of his other 70mm epics such as "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia" in terms of sweeping scope, but it more than holds its own. Produced in an era where apartheid in South Africa was the hot political issue, this film deals realistically with the occupation of the english in India. Not so much the political occupation, but how the two culture relate to each other through the eyes of the films two lead characters beautifully played by Judy Davis and Victor Banerjee. A film which does not give you the answers, but encourages you to draw your own conclusion in regards to the charcters (espeically Davis' Adela Quested) motivations. Now how does the DVD look? The transfer is beautiful, the best I've ever seen this film presented since it opened back in Dec, 1984. There are no distracting compression artifacts or nasty layer switches. The dolby stereo surround track is clear and ambient with no drop-outs, so a 5.1 upgrade would've been unnecessary for this film. If you enjoy striking visuals and English literature brought to vivid life through film, Passage is a must-have. My highest recommendation.