Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 307: Give Peace a Chance

So we're finally here, and a lot quicker than I thought we would be, as I've finished in the 1980s in just over two months. As always the decade is ending and with, you guessed it, yet another historical epic. Although not directed by David Lean, Gandhi almost feels like a tribute to Lean by its director Richard Attenborough. I suppose I feel this way because of the film's spectacular exterior scenes and the way ii which India is shot throughout the film. In fact Lean was on board at one point to direct Gandhi but due to different circumstances it was Attenborough who ultimately helmed the project. Like a lot of the epics I've looked at in this decade, Gandhi takes place over a number of years beginning in 1893 and ending in 1948. The opening scene depicts the young Mohandas Gandhi being thrown off a train after he refused to move classes. From there Gandhi begins to fight injustice, firstly in South Africa when a new rule comes in which essentially makes Indians feel like second class citizens. Throughout the movie, we learn that Gandhi is only interested in peaceful protests and doesn't get angry when he's thrown in prison for his beliefs. As well as making a number of enemies, Gandhi builds up a following and he has a few loyal friends who he's able to count on. Much of the film depicts Gandhi's attempt to end the British Empire's control of India and his participation in the country's eventual independence. But Gandhi soon realises that he still cannot fully bring about peace due to the fact that India's different religious groups begin to squabble amongst one another. To attempt to counteract this, Gandhi goes on a hunger strike and eventually convinces his countrymen to throw down their weapons. Although he's ultimately murdered, Gandhi's message of an eye for an eye leaves all of us blind is one that resonates long after the film has ended.

I was interested to learn that novelisation of Gandhi's screenplay starts with an introduction from the film-makers explaining that no man's life can be encompassed in one telling. That's certainly evident throughout Gandhi, which at times feels like a potted history of the man rather than a cinematic version of his life story. It was clear that this was a passion project for Attenborough, who had attempted to get the project off the ground for almost thirty years. I do feel his need to tell as much of Gandhi's story as possible has meant that the film was a lot longer than it should've been and contained many superfluous scenes that were full of expositional speeches. Like most epics, Gandhi was at least great to look at with the film's cinematography capturing the brilliant scenery that India had to offer. Though it needed to be cut down, the film's editing was great nonetheless especially when newsreel from the time was intercut into the main body of the picture. Period detail appears to be another element that Attenborough was keen on getting right and he accomplished that thanks to some superb art direction and costume design. On top of the film's technical achievements, Gandhi's other saving grace was the fantastic central performance from Ben Kingsley. Kingsley was cast due to his Indian heritage and through his performance he really explained why so many people wanted to follow Gandhi. Kingsley's performance is one of the most captivating I've seen over the course of this project and he was rightfully rewarded with a Best Actor Oscar. There were plenty of familiar faces among the supporting cast with Martin Sheen, Candice Bergen and Geraldine James all giving impressive turns. But, aside from Kingsley, the best performance in the film came from Rohini Hattangadi as Gandhi's wife and I personally feel that she should have least received a nomination for her part in the movie. Ultimately Gandi combines a brilliant central term with some fairly outstanding set pieces but is let down by a baggy script and an overly long run time.

But did Gandhi deserve to win the Best Picture prize? Find out next time as I review every Oscar ceremony from the 1980s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 105: More from Charlie and Bill

Next up we have adaptations of two classic works of British literature from two classic British directors. First of all Charles Dickens' Great Expectations directed by David Lean and then Laurence Olivier's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V. When writing about any of these films its always tempting to go into plot detail but with works of classic literature it feels like ret-reading old ground a lot of the time so instead I shall simply discuss the style and acting.

First up then Lean's Great Expectations which goes straight into the story as young Pip first encounters the convict Abel Magwitch and is forced to steel food and a file so that the convict can get away and have something to eat. These scenes between the startled Pip and the terrifying Magwitch are some of the film's best and the way they are shot and edited and the music that accompanies them all adds to the haunting mood and rightfully the film did win the Oscars that year for Art Direction and Cinematography. The Art Direction is also prevalent in the later scenes when Pip is invited to play at the house of Miss Havisham and her ward Estella whom Pip falls in love with. Lean again gets it just right showing this house as a large daunting place full of cobwebs and dust where the clocks are stopped to the time when Miss Havisham was stood up at the altar. About an hour into the film the action switches and Pip is now an adult played by John Mills, it is in these scenes that Pip goes to London to live with Alec Guinness' adorable Herbert Pocket and also romances the grown Estella. For me I felt that Mills was miscast as Pip, I felt that he seemed almost too old to be playing a 21 year old and also didn't really convey the fact that he'd made the transition from blacksmith's mate to gentleman in training. But Mills' performance is the exception rather than the rule as there are some fine performances in the supporting cast from Francis L Sullivan as the belligerant lawyer Mr Jaggers to Bernard Miles as the kindly Mr Joe and Finlay Currie as the terrifying Magwitch all these roles are played as they should be my only criticism is that I feel that Martita Hunt went a little overboard as Miss Havisham almost making her performance lapse into pantomime. As the final scenes come on and Pip finds out who it was that paid for him to become a gentleman and also of Estella's true parentage the film comes together with the final scenes playing out as they should. Lean abridges the book rightfully chopping out the bits that don't really contribute to the overall narrative and at the end producing a great piece of British cinema which was ahead of its time in many ways and was certainly deserving of the two technical Oscars that it won.

Similarly Olivier's Henry V was deserving of the Special Oscar it won for Laurence Olivier in his achievement of bringing this unique retelling of one of the Bard's most famous works to the screen, he was honoured as a director, producer and actor and excels in all three. This film was shot in Technicolor which, in 1944 when it was being shot, was still quite rare and the way the colour is used in this film also feels ahead of its time creating almost like a separate world as Henry V and his charges head to France. However the film actually starts as a performance in The Globe theatre as we see the audiences take their seats and Leslie Banks, as the chorus, welcomes us to the performance as the actors deliver the first couple of scenes from the stage before Henry and the English hit the sea to France to fight in the Battle of Agincourt. The Agincourt scenes themselves are spectacular, the exterior shots are obviously done in interior studios but at some times I had to sort of take a double back as they are so realistic but at the same time quite obviously fake. This contrast creates almost a surrealist feel and when two soldiers are surrounded by what is meant to be snow covering the French castle it feels out of the ordinary. Olivier makes a brilliant Henry V and his performance and the film as a whole are a lot better than Hamlet the film that won him the Oscar and took home the same prize. Henry V was seen as a morale-booster for the British army and therefore this Techincolor marvel was funded by the British Government and some of Olivier's speeches do have a certain morale-boosting resonance to them. This is getting away from just a filmed version of a Shakespeare play and using the medium of film to try and play around with the audience's expectations. I have to say my favourite parts are when the camera goes backstage to see the actors getting ready before taking the stage again at The Globe. As Henry and Katherine get married at the end of the film we return to the theatre with the audience clapping and I'd like to think that the post-war audience was doing the same thing.

O.K. that's your lot for this little update hopefully be back with more Oscar-ness soon.

Big Oscar Challenge Day 90-92: Catch-Up Part 3

The good thing about this Oscar Challenge is that I am able to watch films that I've never heard of but I really enjoy one of these is The Pied Piper a film about a man who is forced into action to get a group of children out of Nazi-occupied France and get them safely to the U.S. Monty Woolley was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role as the curmudgeonly Howard who begrudgingly takes the children of two parents at the same French resort where he is staying over the border, bit by bit they are joined by other European children and are captured by the Nazis as Woolley almost falls foul of Otto Preminger's German General. Although it wasn't a great film The Pied Piper had a nice tone to it and an enjoyable unstarry cast even though Roddy MacDowall did feature as one of the children. The Pied Piper was a few of the films that I watched during this period that were involved with World War 2. There was also 1944 nominee In Which We Serve, one of the first British films to be nominated for a plethora of Oscars it revolves around the crew of a ship during the war. It portrays these men as both dedicated to the war effort as well as normal down-to-Earth men. The cast is awfully impressive and includes Noel Coward, John Mills, Celia Johnson and Richard Attenborough in his first ever role. And from 1943 there was Wake Island a rather short film about the Pearl Harbour bombing and how it affected both the soldiers stationed on the island and the men working on a building site there also. The most impressive thing about Wake Island was the final scenes during the attacks by the Japanese for a film made in the 1940s the effects that are used are very real indeed. Another film that seemed like an also-ran inclusion in a year of 10 nominees, this was one that fell against Mrs Miniver a film that I haven't actually watched yet.

As well as the films showing the reactions to the war we also had the satirical reaction to the war courtesy of Mr Charlie Chaplin. The Great Dictator was the only Chaplin movieever to be nominated for Best Picture while the man himself also got nominated for both Best Actor and for his screenplay. The film was historic as it was the first time Chaplin ever spoke in a film and saw him took on a duel role both as a Jewish barber who is fighting in the war as a private and Adenoyd Hynkel a Dictator modelled on a certain Mr Hitler. Thanks to the farcical nature of the film Chaplin's two characters are mistaken for each other in hilarious circumstances. For a 1940s comedy it is very witty indeed and challenges Hitler's authority and his underlings in quite a strong manner. as the other generals are called Herring and Gerbitsch and if you think about it I'm guessing you could work out who they represent. Continuing the tradition of comedies not doing very well at the Oscars, The Great Dictator failed to pick up any of the five awards it was nominated for. Despite that I really enjoyed it and think that it is possibly one of the most influential comedy films of all time and is certainly better remembered than that year's winner the still marvellous Rebecca.