History Film / Gandhi

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: General Smuts would rather negotiate with Gandhi than allowing the situation with South Africa's Indian population to continue to fester and lead to more violence. Similarly, Judge Broomfield preferred the lighest allowable sentence for Gandhi because of the latter's use of non-violent resistance rather than terrorism.

* DistinctionWithoutADifference: Early on, as strategies agains the British are being discussed, Gandhi proposes a prolonged, nation-wide period of prayer and fast. The others, getting excited, ask if he means for the whole country to go on strike. Gandhi reiterates that what he's suggesting is the whole country prays and fasts, although this could have the same effect as an official strike.

* OneSceneWonder: Several renowned film and stage actors make a strong impression in one or two relatively brief appearances. Some of the most notworthy:

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Well, not comically at all. It's a masterpiece of cognitive dissonance, though, to see the Hindi militants hitting the opposition over the head with signs reading "Long Live Gandhi".

* ActualPacifist: Gandhi, obviously. As he states early in the film: "In this cause, I too am prepared to die. There's no cause for which I'm prepared to kill."

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Well, not comically at all. It's a masterpiece of cognitive dissidence, though, to see the Hindi militants hitting the opposition over the head with signs reading "Long Live Gandhi".

* ForegoneConclusion: The film starts with Gandhi’s murder.

* DownerEnding: It's shown at the start of the film, already. Gandhi is murdered in the end.

* EpicMovie

The story starts in 1948, with Gandhi being assassinated by a Hindu radical for favoring concessions to Pakistan. We then see a flashback to Gandhi as a 24-year-old lawyer in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica in 1893. After he is thrown out of a first-class train compartment for having brown skin, Gandhi becomes an activist, agitating for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa. After 20 years in South Africa in which he wins major concessions for the Indians living there, Gandhi returns to India to find himself a hero. He joins the Congress Party campaign for Indian home rule, and eventually becomes its leader, spending thirty years battling the British before finally winning Indian independence. Shortly thereafter, [[BookEnds he is assassinated by a Hindu radical for favoring concessions to Pakistan]].

* BookEnds: Gandhi's murder is shown at the beginning and end of the film.

* MeanBrit: Gandhi has to face a lot of them, including probably the meanest of them all in India then: Reginald Dyer.

A 1982 EpicMovie directed by Richard Attenborough, ''Gandhi'' is the bio-pic of Mohandas K. Gandhi, aka UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi. The titular role was played by Creator/BenKingsley in his StarMakingRole. Its story concerns Gandhi as he leads the non-violent fight for India’s independence from the British Empire. Along the way, he earns the respect of much of the world and enemies of all forms.

The story starts with Gandhi as a 24-year-old lawyer in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica in 1893. After he is thrown out of a first-class train compartment for having brown skin, Gandhi becomes an activist, agitating for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa. After 20 years in South Africa in which he wins major concessions for the Indians living there, Gandhi returns to India to find himself a hero. He joins the Congress Party campaign for Indian home rule, and eventually becomes its leader, spending thirty years battling the British before finally winning Indian independence. Shortly thereafter, he is assassinated by a Hindu radical for favoring concessions to Pakistan.

* BookEnds: Gandhi's murder is shown at the beginning and again at the end.

-->--'''Mohandas K. Gandhi.'''

* WorthyOpponent: Jan Smuts and British officials regard Gandhi this way.

Creator/MartinSheen plays an American journalist who reports on Gandhi in both South Africa and India. Creator/CandiceBergen is featured prominently towards the end of the film (she is at the scene when Gandhi is murdered) as photo-journalist Margaret Bourke White. A very young Creator/DanielDayLewis is onscreen for about three minutes early in the film as an Afrikaner thug who harasses Gandhi on the street.

Creator/MartinSheen plays an American journalist who reports on Gandhi in both South Africa and India. Creator/CandiceBergen is featured prominently towards the end of the film (she is at the scene when Gandhi is murdered) as photo-journalist Margaret Bourke White. A very young Creator/DanielDayLewis is onscreen for about three minutes early in the film as a Afrikaner thug who harasses Gandhi on the street.

* BadassPacifist: The protagonist. (Although his belief that non-violence would work against UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler was ill-considered.)

* EccentricMentor: Gandhi, especially when dealing with Smuts the British official and directly after he comes home from South Africa and has to deal with the wealthy congressmen of India - he comes off as a excessively polite and eccentrically wistful, until he starts doing things and moving whole countries right under their noses.

* GeneralRipper: General Reginald Dyer, but Gandhi makes it clear that the only difference between in him and the mainstream British colonial treatment of India is in the degree of blatant violence used.

* MeanBrit: Gandhi has to face a lot of them, including probably the meanest of them all: Reginald Dyer.

* NiceToTheWaiter: Insists on relieving a servant of the tea set during a meeting with other independence leaders.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The various factions in India argue about how to proceed against the British. Hindus and Muslims descend into open war against each other after the British announce that they are getting out. Gandhi goes to great lengths to preserve a united India, offering the Muslims not only the prime minister position but every ministry in the cabinet, but the Hindus won't stand for that. So the subcontinent is divided between India and Pakistan.

* Salt to many Indians. Hence the Salt Marches.

This film won the AcademyAward for Best Picture, Best Director for Attenborough, Best Actor for Kingsley, and five other Oscars. It holds the record for biggest cast, having around 300,000 people including extras.