@Sonero I must say I am very impressed by your unorthodox viewing.
Back to the mudane:
A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984)
David Lean’s accolade laden career ended with this modest epic set in 1920s India and based on E.M. Forster’s excellent, though long winded novel. It would be fair to say that Lean treats the narrative with the same long-winded high-handedness. The framing of some shots, locations and landscapes is obviously designed to be symbolic, significant or possibly just scenic, but the overall effect is to suggest this is a filmmaker who wants to demonstrate he can do more than simply tell us a story. The problem with Lean’s metaphoric approach is it actually buries the story, which isn’t up to much in the first place. He also removes many of the anti-colonial sentiments of the novel and leaves the British looking foolish, but not devious or callous, and the Indians appear to be pleasant, but headstrong and foolish – their mouths tending to run away with them. Only Rashid Karapiet’s barrister Das shows any kind of etiquette. One feels, in attempting to widen the scope of the novel into something semi-religious, preordained and colourfully laudable, Lean has given himself too much to do. He shuffles-in unnecessary scenes. There is a totally mystifying nighttime shot of a crocodile loping in the Ganges and another of the Brahman Godpole saluting Mrs Moore as she leaves on the train. Latterly, Lean inserts a whole sequence of views of the Himalayas designed to do no more than show them off, and even more of the night sky and the moon. Adela Quested’s sensual journey to a Hindu temple is a misstep inappropriate to the narrative. It’s all very well illustrating your locations lovingly, but this kind of ham-fisted filmmaking panders to the artist not the art.
The problem for Lean is that aside for the good looking cast and a decent performance by Peggy Ashcroft, there isn’t a lot to keep our eyes busy other than those visuals. He wrote the screenplay, directed and edited the result, so there is nowhere else for him to turn to and place the blame. A Passage to India purrs on like a lazy cat. We like the look of it, cuddled and friendly, but it ain’t doing much. Sadly, Maurice Jarre’s music, like Lean’s direction, is merely a regurgitation of past glories. Alec Guinness is horrifically miscast as Godpole and this was widely and rightly criticised at the time; the days of ‘blacking up’ actors should have bitten the dust by 1984. Lean’s return to film after over a dozen years was welcomed by the movie goers and A Passage to India was a huge hit, commercially and critically. It benefitted no doubt from following Gandhi, The Far Pavilions and stuff like that. Tellingly James Ivory [who had just directed the wonderful and superior India-set Heat and Dust] said he could have made the film with half the cost, half the run time and be twice as good. A Passage to India is certainly watchable, but for evidence of David Lean’s true genius I suggest a few hours watching River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago.
On January 7, 1961 a network of deep cover KGB operatives was arrested in the UK by the MI5.
This network included two British clerks Harry Houghton and Ethel Gee, who had been stealing top secret information from a submarine research center in Portland, UK, their controller Gordon Lonsdale and a middle aged bookseller couple, the Krogers. The Portland spy ring, as it was then called, had been transmitting highly sensitive information to the Soviet Union since 1953.
This movie, Ring of Spies is a factual account of the activities of the group and the events leading up to their arrest.
Starring Bernard Lee, William Sylvester and Margaret Tyzack and directed by Robert Tronson, Ring of Spies is a very interesting counter-espionage movie with a docu-drama feel to it.
The Cuban Missile Crisis and the widespread paranoia of the 60's resulted in the production of some very poignant works of apocalyptic art i.e., Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, On the Beach etc.
This tense and gritty Cold War thriller falls into the same category.
Sailing in the Denmark Strait, the US Navy destroyer USS Bedford detects a Soviet submarine just off the coast of Greenland. The despotic and gung-ho commander of the ship, Captain Eric Finlander (Richard Widmark), obsessively pursues the submarine, all the while enforcing high levels of vigilance and compliance on his ship's crew.
A disquieting tension builds up between the ship's captain and the exhausted under-command.
Tempers flare-up between Captain Finlander and the two new arrivals on the ship, civilian photojournalist Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier) and the medical officer Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter (Martin Balsam), but the skipper remains resolute.
He is hellbent on forcing the submarine to surface and identify itself, even though the submarine is now in international waters.
This cat and mouse game ultimately ends in tragedy.
Comments
@Sonero I must say I am very impressed by your unorthodox viewing.
Back to the mudane:
A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984)
David Lean’s accolade laden career ended with this modest epic set in 1920s India and based on E.M. Forster’s excellent, though long winded novel. It would be fair to say that Lean treats the narrative with the same long-winded high-handedness. The framing of some shots, locations and landscapes is obviously designed to be symbolic, significant or possibly just scenic, but the overall effect is to suggest this is a filmmaker who wants to demonstrate he can do more than simply tell us a story. The problem with Lean’s metaphoric approach is it actually buries the story, which isn’t up to much in the first place. He also removes many of the anti-colonial sentiments of the novel and leaves the British looking foolish, but not devious or callous, and the Indians appear to be pleasant, but headstrong and foolish – their mouths tending to run away with them. Only Rashid Karapiet’s barrister Das shows any kind of etiquette. One feels, in attempting to widen the scope of the novel into something semi-religious, preordained and colourfully laudable, Lean has given himself too much to do. He shuffles-in unnecessary scenes. There is a totally mystifying nighttime shot of a crocodile loping in the Ganges and another of the Brahman Godpole saluting Mrs Moore as she leaves on the train. Latterly, Lean inserts a whole sequence of views of the Himalayas designed to do no more than show them off, and even more of the night sky and the moon. Adela Quested’s sensual journey to a Hindu temple is a misstep inappropriate to the narrative. It’s all very well illustrating your locations lovingly, but this kind of ham-fisted filmmaking panders to the artist not the art.
The problem for Lean is that aside for the good looking cast and a decent performance by Peggy Ashcroft, there isn’t a lot to keep our eyes busy other than those visuals. He wrote the screenplay, directed and edited the result, so there is nowhere else for him to turn to and place the blame. A Passage to India purrs on like a lazy cat. We like the look of it, cuddled and friendly, but it ain’t doing much. Sadly, Maurice Jarre’s music, like Lean’s direction, is merely a regurgitation of past glories. Alec Guinness is horrifically miscast as Godpole and this was widely and rightly criticised at the time; the days of ‘blacking up’ actors should have bitten the dust by 1984. Lean’s return to film after over a dozen years was welcomed by the movie goers and A Passage to India was a huge hit, commercially and critically. It benefitted no doubt from following Gandhi, The Far Pavilions and stuff like that. Tellingly James Ivory [who had just directed the wonderful and superior India-set Heat and Dust] said he could have made the film with half the cost, half the run time and be twice as good. A Passage to India is certainly watchable, but for evidence of David Lean’s true genius I suggest a few hours watching River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago.
@chrisno1 Thank you for the kind words Sir.
RING OF SPIES (1964)
On January 7, 1961 a network of deep cover KGB operatives was arrested in the UK by the MI5.
This network included two British clerks Harry Houghton and Ethel Gee, who had been stealing top secret information from a submarine research center in Portland, UK, their controller Gordon Lonsdale and a middle aged bookseller couple, the Krogers. The Portland spy ring, as it was then called, had been transmitting highly sensitive information to the Soviet Union since 1953.
This movie, Ring of Spies is a factual account of the activities of the group and the events leading up to their arrest.
Starring Bernard Lee, William Sylvester and Margaret Tyzack and directed by Robert Tronson, Ring of Spies is a very interesting counter-espionage movie with a docu-drama feel to it.
Excellent film.
THE BEDFORD INCIDENT (1965)
The Cuban Missile Crisis and the widespread paranoia of the 60's resulted in the production of some very poignant works of apocalyptic art i.e., Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, On the Beach etc.
This tense and gritty Cold War thriller falls into the same category.
Sailing in the Denmark Strait, the US Navy destroyer USS Bedford detects a Soviet submarine just off the coast of Greenland. The despotic and gung-ho commander of the ship, Captain Eric Finlander (Richard Widmark), obsessively pursues the submarine, all the while enforcing high levels of vigilance and compliance on his ship's crew.
A disquieting tension builds up between the ship's captain and the exhausted under-command.
Tempers flare-up between Captain Finlander and the two new arrivals on the ship, civilian photojournalist Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier) and the medical officer Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter (Martin Balsam), but the skipper remains resolute.
He is hellbent on forcing the submarine to surface and identify itself, even though the submarine is now in international waters.
This cat and mouse game ultimately ends in tragedy.
A terrific film and one of the best Cold War thrillers to grace the cinema screen.