Gandhi (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Fans of the film will be glad that Sony finally put some thought and work into the bonus features. The "Special Edition" had only an interview with Kingsley talking about the film, four newsreel clips on the real Gandhi, quotes from Gandhi, and a photo gallery. This new, two-disc version offers 90 minutes of new material, with a director's commentary and nine short features added to the previous materials. It's not exactly the epic treatment, but this compelling story of activism finally gets the package of extras it deserves.

Video:
For a standard DVD, the picture is pretty sharp. The film is remastered in High Definition and presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. There's a slight graininess that's more noticeable in some scenes than others, but by and large there's a strong amount of detail and bright, natural-looking colors.

Audio:
The audio options are English Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, and an unspecified Spanish track that I couldn't really tell what it was. But even the 5.1 option doesn't utilize the rear speakers as much as newer films. Subtitles are in English (CC), Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Extras:
Thankfully they added to the extras from the first release instead of presenting a whole other set. I personally think the handful of complete vintage newsreels showing Gandhi (including one of him talking) remains the best of the bonus features. Another carryover from the first release-an interview with Kingsley-is also pretty solid. But the biggest addition is the involvement of Attenborough, who appears here giving a short and modest introduction to the film, narrates a pretty interesting commentary, and also appears on several interviews talking about the film.

The "featurettes" are mostly interviews, with some clips from the film and vintage clips spliced in, but some of them are as quietly fascinating as the film itself. There's "In Search of Gandhi," which tells how Attenborough came to do the project, and how it's based on the Louis Fischer biography, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi; "Reflections on Ben," which is exactly what it sounds like; "Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad," which is just a talking-head interview with the actress who played her; "The Funeral," which focuses on the biggest scene of the film; "Looking Back," more reminiscences about the filming; "Shooting an Epic in India," which has some nice additional behind-the-scenes footage; "Designing Gandhi," featuring the set designer, "From the Director's chair" interviews on two subjects, and "The Words of Mahatma Gandhi," an interactive primer.

Bottom Line:
"Gandhi" tells a powerful story in a quiet way, with sweeping cinematography and a sense of the period that makes it as memorable an epic as "Lawrence of Arabia"--ironic, considering that Lean was approached before Attenborough, but turned it down! Attenborough loved the story so much that he raised the money and directed. His love-of-subject clearly shows through, especially with Kingsley's performance so uncannily Gandhi-like that many Indians felt he was a reincarnation.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---