Gandhi (1982)

At 191 minutes, Gandhi has all the time in the world to argue with its hero and almost never does. Richard Attenborough treats Mohandas Gandhi as a near-saint, smoothing over his contradictions and giving other leaders, especially Jinnah, very little room to be people. Martin Sheen and Candice Bergen play Western journalists who mostly exist to be impressed. None of that undoes Ben Kingsley. He ages decades across the film and never once seems to be acting, just thinking, listening and choosing not to strike back. The Salt March scenes are the heart of it, ordinary people walking to the sea to make something the law said they couldn’t. The massacre at Amritsar is filmed with plain, devastating restraint, and Edward Fox plays the officer who ordered it without a flicker. It made $52.8 million domestic on a reported $22M. An 8.8 because Kingsley is towering in a film too reverent to ask hard questions. $617 says the next time someone cuts you off in traffic, you take one long breath and think of this movie first.

What works: Ben Kingsley’s quiet, complete performance and the Salt March scenes, which show peaceful protest as hard, patient work.

What doesn’t: The film is so reverent that Gandhi rarely gets to be complicated, and figures like Jinnah are flattened into obstacles.

Who it’s for: Anyone ready to give a long evening to one of the great screen performances and a crash course in how India won its independence.