A Passage to India
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Movie Reviews of A Passage to India
Movie Review: Yet Another Passage To Racism
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is an interesting adaptation of E.M. Forrester's novel. The story meshes British colonialism and India's great culture into a bowl of horrible racism.
Director David Lean did a fine job on this classic story. His direction is subtle and calming somewhat as I imagine India to be in a traditional sense. Unfortunately I had the feeling Lean resorted to stereotypes in his projection of the true India. Some of the scenery seemed adapted to the screen rather than truthful for 1920's India. He scanned over the poorer aspects of this beautiful country in order to save the beauty of his film. Also I found the casting of Alec Guinness (as Indian Prof. Godbole) really atrocious. With all of the decent actors from India why waste a bunch of makeup and fake accents on a British actor who is capable of better roles? Other than these exceptions I felt Lean did a marvelous job filming such a unique and vast country, he frames beautiful landscapes and manages to capture the heart of the moon several times.
The actors in this film are marvelous (except for Alec Guinness!) with Peggy Ashcroft and Judy Davis stealing the show as two British women daring to travel and see something other than what feels safe. Davis is somewhat irritating as the boneless woman who can't decide if she wants marriage or love, she is passionless and becomes intimidated or enthralled by the passion found in India. Because of her wavering existence she jeopardizes the life of Dr. Aziz (played perfectly by Victor Banerjee) by accusing this honorable man of rape. Needless to say the powerful British take this accusation as a reason to act upon their upper class laurels and persecute the Indians. And yet another picture shows the devastation of racism at the hands of a white society touted as being civil.
This film is a bit long and begins with a tinge of boredom but once the story unfolds and you find yourself transported to the beautiful scenic views of India it is worth the effort. The way the peaceful native Indians were treated by the British who occupied their country is horrible and the racism absolutely deplorable but the facts are important to history and in need of being told. Too bad the entire world could not see through the eyes of Mrs. Moore (Ashcroft) and feel that all people deserve the same treatment but I guess we have to wait for another passage to open up before that happens.
Movie Review: A Disappointment from Lean, and not Forster's Novel
Summary: 3 Stars
David Lean has made some of the best films of all time (incl. "Dr. Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"), and E. M. Forster is a delightful writer (esp. "Howards End" and "Room with a View"). This film adaptation, however, turns out to be a disappointment. It lacks the incisiveness and subtlety of the novel, and it does not match up to Lean's earlier work.The very essence of the story is the question, can Indians and Britons be friends? That is the heart of the novel, as Dr. Aziz and Mr. Fielding struggle to be friends as their societies conflict and they offend each other through misunderstandings. This is not really shown in the film. In fact, in some ways, the chief Anglo-Indian relationship in the film is a latent love between Dr. Aziz and Miss Quested. Lean leads us to believe that they secretly long for each other, but society (and they themselves) will not allow such a relationship. Additionally, Lean has changed much of the focus from an Indian story (about Dr. Aziz and his search for a place in colonial society) to a British one (about the place of British colonials in an alien place). This is reinforced by the invented opening scene of the movie, which is not in the novel. Also, the Major, Dr. Aziz's overbearing, racist boss, has a minimal role in the movie. In the book, he is very important.
In fact, some friends of mine who had not read the novel had trouble following just what was going on in the earlier parts of the movie, and they certainly didn't get much of the oblique critique of the British colonial project.
Considering the novel as the premise, this is not an epic tale, and it was not suited for Lean's grand style. The more intimate style of Merchant-Ivory would have been appropriate here. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and Pasternak's "Dr. Zhivago" were epic novels needing broad strokes to appear on screen. Forster's novel mixed subtle satire with poignant portrayal of the dilemma's facing a Western-educated Indian under the British Raj. Most of that is lost in this film.
Movie Review: Not as good as I'd hoped
Summary: 3 Stars
The movie started out very promisingly, with a lot of visuals of India and the look and feel of the 1920s, but it all just kind of goes around in circles after it gets all the characters in place. I still don't get the whole thing with the caves. Was something supernatural supposed to have happened? Is this what led to accusations and a trial? The movie fails to make it as "trial classic" as well as it scarcely delves into the proceedings before it is all over. Speaking of all over, I found myself wondering when the movie was going to be done. And when it was done I found myself wondering what, exactly, happened.
Maybe if you read the book first it makes more sense.
Movie Review: kinda good kinda boring
Summary: 2 Stars
I have to remember it was made in 1980's. It was too long of a movie and it took too long to get interestingMovie Review: A LEAN DAVID
Summary: 1 Stars
I am an Indian. I adore the way Forster wrote about India, and the way in which directorial stalwarts like Merchant-Ivory captured that vision on 8mm. For anyone who's followed David Lean's movies in the chronological order, The Passage to India is almost a criminal gyp, for it does not have a strong (or any) storyline to brag about, nor does it capture the glorious vistas of natures as Lawrence of Arabia or Dr Zhivago had managed. Somehow, a true sense of India, either as a place or as a people, fails to come alive. While non-Indian viewers may enjoy the mild research that may have gone into the set and the props, it is really nothing special for anyone who knows what India must have looked like. For all the genius that David Lean was, he too fell for the standard shrinkwrapped clichés about India that any western director indulges in. For insatnce, the music that one hears at the market is frequently south Indian (Madras Presidency at that time), but in reality this would NEVER have been heard within 1000 miles of Bombay.
The (mis)casting of non-Indians for most of the Indian characters -- a fact that other reviewers have noted too -- is not simply a sore point, it is practically gross. Case in point: an atrocious Alec Guinness trying to pass off as a Brahmin Professor, while Victor Banenerjee struts about absurdly over-eager in the key role of Dr. Aziz. Why this was necessary is beyond me.
Then, the plot, or lack thereof. Really, very little happens during the course of the movie. The narrative is super-turtle, lacking the zing with which Merchant-Ivory have brought other books of Forster to life. The story to me was not about Adela's sexual conflicts; it was about an appreciation for the raw energies of India and how it transforms our very souls. I don't feel Lean's screenplay gives us the chance to discover Forster's India.
The film picks up a click towards the ending, which is full of the subtleties one expects of a writer of Forster's cadre, though there remains an absence of crucial detail about what should be the key event of the story. Peggy Ashcroft is great, but one can't help but wonder whether an Indian director could have made more from the same material.
Overall, the movie is borderline idiotic, watchable once perhaps (if your history professor forces it down your throat) otherwise there's a lot better to learn about India from: "Shakespeare Wallah", "Bombay Talkie", "Heat and Dust" etc etc.