A Passage to India
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Movie Reviews of A Passage to India
Movie Review: A Quiet, Delicate Beauty
Summary: 4 Stars
When David Lean's "A Passage to India" opened in 1984, some saw it as a showdown between the glory days of literate epic filmmaking and the "feel-good" ethos of the Lucas/Spielberg popcorn juggernauts. Who better than the director of "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago" and "Bridge on the River Kwai" to show the film school grads how to make a movie? As always, anything burdened by such mythic expectations is bound to fail ("Phantom Menace" anyone?) Sadly, I joined the chorus of detractors lamenting "Passage" as a poor shadow of the "Leanscapes" that catapulted "Lawrence" and "Zhivago" into film history.Amazing how age softens perspective. A fresh viewing of "Passage," courtesy of Columbia TriStar Home Video's new DVD, reveals an eloquent adaptation of E.M. Forster's complex novel about British colonialism in 1928 India and the cultural and sensual abysses that separate men and women, English and Indian, sensualist and ascetic.
"Passage" tells the story of Adela Quested (Judy Davis) en route to India to visit her fiancé, Ronny Heslop (Nigel Havers). Traveling with Heslop's mother, Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft, in an Oscar-winning performance), Adela arrives in the city of Chandrapore to find an alien environment, yet evocative in a way she cannot fathom. Mrs. Moore is similarly captivated by India, but is less than admiring of the treatment of the Indians by their colonial masters, i.e. her peers. One night, Mrs. Moore visits an abandoned mosque. There, she encounters local physician Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee). At first he charges her with blasphemy, entering a holy place improperly. When she assures him that she showed due respect by removing her shoes before entering, the two strike a friendship that might signal some understanding between the two cultures.
At a lunch party given by British teacher Richard Fielding (James Fox), who does not share his countrymen's disrespect for India, Adela meets Aziz for the first time while Mrs. Moore and Fielding converse about metaphysics with Professor Godbole (Alec Guinness, donning yet another disguise for Lean), a Brahmin mystic. Adela is fascinated by Aziz's juggling of their two societies. In an effort to impress Adela and fit in as more of an Englishman, Aziz impulsively calls for an expedition to the mysterious Marabar caves outside town.
What at first seems (to both sides) a breach of etiquette turns sinister when Aziz is accused by Adela of attempting to rape her during a visit to one of the caves. Now seen as a political tool by both sides, Aziz's trial threatens to escalate resentment into outright bloodshed. As everyone tries to solve the riddle of what really happened, Aziz and Adela must find some way to break away from the societal and cultural maelstroms threatening their freedom.
Adhering closely to the Forster novel, Lean's screenplay adaptation finds greater interest (and rightly so) in the circumstances that led to the incident as well as the aftermath. Davis' Adela is repressed and cloistered comfortably within British society. Both Aziz and India arouses her, awakening sensual feelings capable of enlightenment...or destruction. Lean visualizes this conflict with a scene not in the book. When Adela goes bicycling outside the city (Chapter 8), she comes across the ruins of an ancient temple. Almost voyeur-like, she spies the numerous statues of couples having sex. Adela herself almost reaches a fever pitch when wild monkeys literally expel her from their feral sanctuary. The lack of respect that Adela showed in her judgment is a direct contrast to Mrs. Moore's deference when she enters the mosque and meets Aziz. Yet Lean gave us the conflict in purely visual terms, no less grand than the match-to-sunrise jump cut in "Lawrence" or the endless icy tundras of "Zhivago. "Passage" proved a worthy valediction to Lean's career. Between directing, scripting and editing the film, we see Lean in complete command in his storytelling faculties. Even the final scene, straight out of the book, works better in the film than on the page.
The transfer also succeeds on every level. The 1.85 anamorphic image is rock solid and sharp throughout the presentation. (Politics at the time forced Lean to shoot the film in the more TV-friendly 1.85 aspect ratio instead of the wider 2.35 Cinemascope format. Back in 1984, this compromise seemed outrageous. Again, after watching the film, I found Lean's "flat" framing just as carefully composed as anything on his ultra-wide canvas.) The source materials are in terrific shape, as there are no blemishes and defects visible. Colors are rich and vivid but natural. Deep blacks and careful contrast control provide excellent detail delineation. Digital and compression artifacts are completely absent.
The Dolby Surround audio plays adequately; to be expected as the sound mix is not particularly flashy to begin with. Maurice Jarre's score, which weaves Hindu music with Cole Porter-esque rhythm, never overpowers the dialogue or sound effects. Surround channel activity is relegated primarily to music fill. French and Spanish mono tracks are also available on the disc.
The main perk of the special features is a section entitled "Reflections on David Lean." While the title implies a testimonial to David by his peers, it's actually an eight-minute collection of soundbites, shot on video, from David about the making of "Passage" and some thoughts about such collaborators as William Holden and Alec Guinness. There's no identification of the source or circumstances of the observations, but he's never less than fascinating when talking about the difficulties of shooting in India or how Forster wouldn't let grant the movie rights because he "distrusted filmmaking."
Trailers from "Lawrence of Arabia," "Bridge on the River Kwai," and "Guns of Navarone" appear on the disc, mirroring the same trailers available on the "Lawrence" DVD. Again, no "Passage" trailer (Did Columbia not create one back in '84?) The trailers are letterboxed with decent audio and video.
Check out "A Passage to India." A thoughtful, quiet gem awaits you.
Movie Review: The most original of the Forster adaptations
Summary: 4 Stars
Of all the film adaptations of E.M. Forster's novels that came out in the 1980s and 90s, A PASSAGE TO INDIA is probably the most interesting because it veers the most strongly away from the original novel: rather than remain faithfully scrupulous to what Forster wrote, Lean recognized the difference between the film and novel media and offered his own intriguing interpretation of Forster. Whereas Forster's novel is primarily concerned with Fielding and Aziz, the protagonist of Lean's film is Adela Quested, and the film's central concern (as it is for so many of Lean's works) is the main character's sexual hysteria. Although this does at times skew things very strangely, nonetheless the film is really a masterpiece, held together by Judy Davis's brilliant performance as Adela. She doesn't play Adela quite like you'd expect (its hard to believe that her strongwilled character could be so easily bullied by the British during the trial scenes), but she pulls it off magnificently. In two of her best scenes--the famous sequence of her at the ruined temple during the bicycle ride, when she's aroused by the erotic statuary, and her great final moment reading the letter--she doesn't even have to say a word to get the audience thoroughly into her character's mind. Apparently she and Lean did not get along at all during the shooting of the film, which is a shame--it's still her best performance, and it may be the best performance he ever got out of an actor (Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in BRIEF ENCOUNTER excepted).There are some things in the film to regret: Alec Guinness's absurd racial caricature of Professor Godbole, and the silly sequence in the Himalayas with Fielding and Stella looking at mountain peaks that slows the whole movie down. yet, too, there are also lovely scenes that bear watching and re-watching many times: the entrance of the train into Chadrapore (with the difficulty shared by Ronnie and the viewer alike in placing Adela--proleptic of the caves sequence), the refusal of the marriage proposal on the maidan, and of course the haunting climb up to the Marabar Caves.
Movie Review: Enjoyable if a bit flawed
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed this film, as entertainment. It is visually rich, the story is engaging and the acting is first rate. If you want to look at it more deeply, as some of the reviewers here have, you can find some problems. It depends on what you're looking for in a movie. Two hours of way above average entertainment, in my book.
The problem I had was that the troubled side of Miss Quested was not adequately demonstrated before the incident at the cave, which made her initial rape charge completely surprising to me. Her "melt-down" in the cave was not shown very well. True, she was young, had never been out of England and was probably sexually inexperienced and maybe the heat of India got to her. But it didn't make much sense and since that was the pivotal incident in the story, it should have been shown in a better way. It seemed to me that, up until that point, she was shown as very wise and mature with the insight to recognize the indecency of the poor behavior of the English towards the Indians. Her relationship with Mrs. Moore seemed to cement the picture of her as having depth of character. True we had her fleeing from the monkeys in the temple of love, but I think they might frighten anyone. I also didn't understand Mrs. Moore's hasty departure. She had been depicted as being a huge moral force so why she suddenly left, leaving poor Dr. Aziz in his time of trial, seemed out of character.
If Miss Quested was really a victim of extreme culture shock and I understand that India can do this to you, I don't think that the way she was portrayed after the trial was very fair. Was she meant to be shown as lonely, miserable person at the end? I guess I'll have to read the book to find out what really went on...
I did agree that Alec Guiness was a mistake here...he seemed almost comical and that was not the intent.
Movie Review: I really enjoyed this film, though it dragged 3/4 of the way
Summary: 4 Stars
through. I don't quite get the charges of racism. I do think Lean may have been at a stage in his life when he was simply not up to the physical demands of filming in dramatic locations, as some of the scenery appears to be montages. Other scenery, such as of the Ganges or views from the hills are really gorgeous, though.
Guinness was miscast, and it should have been an Indian actor, however he did well with what Lean offered him. I suppose they may have been friends, or enjoyed working with each other? Not fair in one sense, but it is just a film, not a political appointment to play a role in a film. One can be disappointed in the choice of European Guinness to play the role of an Indian Brahmin in a film with a colonial racist subplot, but to suggest that it ruins the film entirely demonstrates your OWN reverse racism. Anyway, back to the film...
Peggy Ashcroft did a marvelous job, I thought - the best performance in the film. Judy Davis gave an excellent performance, but her character is not entirely sympathetic, and so it's hard to feel good about her after the film is over. I also had similar thoughts about Dr. Aziz/Banerjee.
In some ways, it's a challenging film to watch, as many of the same racist notions and impulses are at play today in society, in Europe and also the US. I guess that shows the brilliance of Lean and his work. I recently watched Dr. Zhivago for the first time, and a couple years back, Lawrence of Arabia, and though one can quibble about things in his films, he was indisputably a magnificent filmmaker.
I give Passage only 4 stars as I found it drags only 3/4 of the way into the film, right about after the incident. Maybe it makes me shallow, but I found the film more interesting as an examination of the characters' minds rather than a political statement.
Movie Review: Picnics and Panic
Summary: 4 Stars
"A Passage to India" is based on E.M. Forester's novel and seems to be more about class struggle than romance. The only real romance present here is the very formal courtship between Adela Quested (Judy Davis) and her fiancé, the city magistrate of Chandrapore. She would have been better off staying at home and not causing a such mayhem. At least in my mind, she is terribly immature and not at all ready to enter into an adult relationship of any kind.
Adela Quested has traveled to India with Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft). Both women befriend Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee) and he invites them on a picnic excursion to the Marabar caves. Adela suffers from some sort of panic attack and accuses Dr. Aziz of rape. It is all so ridiculous in so many ways. Adela is afraid of her own feelings and instead of acting on them, she panics and flees.
What happens next is a court trial in which Dr. Aziz attempts to prove his innocence. The outcome them becomes a mystery to the viewer and the movie holds your attention until the end.
While this is not quite a romance, you do get to view Indian temples, trains, caves and beautiful settings.
While this film is beautifully made, the ending is not as fulfilling as one would hope. If you are a hopeless romantic, you might wish for an alternate ending. If you are interested in the treatment of Indians by the British ruling and occupying Chandrapore, then this will give you some insight into the class struggle in 1928.
~The Rebecca Review