Gandhi (1982)

The critic finds the film an honourable, honestly affecting and carefully crafted biopic that plays fairly safe with its subject. Ben Kingsley's performance as Gandhi is singled out as one of the cinema's great historic portraits, with praise also for the handling of major set-pieces.

The critic finds the film a safe, conventional epic that lacks nuance or contradiction in its portrayal of Gandhi. Kingsley’s performance is singled out for bringing gravity and dignity to the role despite the material’s limitations.

The reverential, conventional film lacks a dramatic center and feels like an empty schoolbook hero-worship exercise that tidies up history and is ultimately unaffecting beyond its spectacle scenes. Attenborough's infatuation with Gandhi results in a respectable but uninvolving three-hour-plus epic.

Attenborough's sincere, panoramic film is most effective in its plain, intimate vignettes of Gandhi's life rather than its large spectacles, with Ben Kingsley's lively, searching performance as the standout that holds the long epic together and makes it moving.

The film must be considered one of the major British films of the year due to its subject and production effort. Kingsley's performance in the central role is outstanding, though the film raises more questions than it answers.

The film is a triumph for director Richard Attenborough and a technically exquisite epic that captures the spirit of Gandhi and his times through sweeping, powerful scenes of India's independence struggle. Ben Kingsley's magnetic portrayal anchors the grand, thorough biopic despite its length.

The critic finds the film informative and enjoyable as an education on Gandhi's life but difficult to engage with due to its epic scope leaving subsidiary characters underdeveloped and one-dimensional.