Gandhi

1982
PG
3h 11m

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

242K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer5:09

Docudrama Epic Period Drama Biography Drama History

The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

242K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,231

343

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 8 Oscars
- 35 wins & 23 nominations total

Videos4

Photos138

+ 132

Best Picture Winners by Year

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Storyline

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Trivia
Over 300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers, and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on January 31, 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's funeral. Eleven crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to two minutes and five seconds in the final release.

Goofs
In the opening scene in South Africa, Gandhi is riding first class on a steam locomotive. The first class car is shown as the forward car, closest to the engine. In passenger steam engines, first class would be the rearmost car, farthest away from the engine's heat and exhaust. Second or third class would be nearest the engine.

Quotes
Gandhi: An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Crazy credits
Opening credits prologue: No man's life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record and try to find one's way to the heart of the man....

NEW DELHI INDIA 30th JANUARY 1948

Alternate versions
In April 2005, Skoll launched the Gandhi Project in partnership with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kamran Elahian. Working with Palestinian voice actors and artists, an award-winning director dubbed the epic film into Arabic. It is being screened throughout Palestine in order to advance civil society goals of peaceful resistance, self-reliance, economic development and local empowerment, and plans are underway to expand screenings throughout the Arab world.

Connections
Featured in The Making of Gandhi: Mr. Attenborough and Mr. Gandhi (1983)

Soundtracks
God Save the King!
(1744) (uncredited)
Music attributed to Henry Carey
Sung by Ben Kingsley
Reprised when India achieves independence

User reviews360

Review

Featured review

A true epic, in every sense of the word

Very, VERY few films have had the distinct ability to move and inspire me to the point where the effect is almost life-altering. "Gandhi" - the unbelievable, first-rate biopic on the historical figure - is truly one of those films, no question whatsoever. An unsurprising sweep for the 1983 Academy Awards, this is without a doubt one of the last real "epic" motion pictures ever.

Chronicling the rich, unforgettable life of a one Mohandas K. "Mahatma" Gandhi - played to shocking perfection by the wonderful Sir Ben Kingsley - this is a film that I can say really, deeply affected me with its power, its scale, and of course, its timeless message of love and non-violence. As a matter of fact, ever since I first saw the film, and became much more aware of the back story, I can also say that Gandhi is now one of my biggest role models in life. I cannot fully express how much this great man's way of thinking - his words, his struggles, his accomplishments - has affected my own, for I am now a practicing pacifist. I am a firm believer in the value of non-violent protest, and have tried my best to apply that philosophy to most situations in my life. It has worked wonders for me, and has really changed how I view the world in terms of human nature and so forth. Like I said, VERY few films can do something like that to me.