Siskel & Ebert Review A Passage to India (1984) David Lean

[@michaelperkowski641]

Terrific film by David Lean. One of the best pictures of the year. Judy Davis performance is fantastic. Peggy Ashcroft performance is spectacular. Alec Guinness complained that his makeup made him look like an old turkey for sale. How ever it didn't affect his performance. outstanding performance by Victor Benerjee as Dr. Aziz. Beautifully directed by Lean. Cinematography of India is stunning. Winning a Golden Globe for best Foreign film. One of David Lean's best films.

[@JasonBagherian]

I read that Alec Guinness never talked to David Lean again after A Passage to India was released. David cut out a scene where Alec was dancing which took him 2 weeks to rehearse. I would love to see that scene and everything else cut out during editing. I really like James Fox in this film, a true British gentleman. I've always found Judy Davis fascinating since seeing her in Who Dares Wins as a child.

[@michaelperkowski641]

@@JasonBagherian WOW I didn't know that about Alec and David. Or scenes editing out. Very interesting.

[@thomaschacko6320]

Actually, those two guys had worked together many times. And there were several fights and reconciliations along the way!

[@DenkyManner]

Judy Davis is amazing. Every moment, no matter what, just captivating in such a strange way. Why isn't she more famous?

[@JasonBagherian]

Judy is my favorite actress.... Check her out in Nitam (2021)

[@ranjanpenkar5511]

Only David lean can produce such a classic movie. Judy Davis is simply captivating. Should have been awarded with an Oscar.

[@bobbyhanly3466]

Captivating is the perfect word. Sally Field won the Oscar. She was married to Alan Greisman at the time. Hollywood is in America. Whatever. Those eyes of Judy's will haunt me long after Sally Field's existence has been expunged from my memory.

[@jearnott]

A truly Classic movie - beautiful cinematography, a haunting soundtrack and some of the best actors of their generation. My only caveat is the ‘blacking up’ of Alex Guinness, woefully miscast as Professor Godbole - Lean wouldn’t have got away with that today. I saw this in the U.S. and the audience just didn’t get it - the cultures are just Worlds apart!

[@garethsmith3036]

I just finished the audiobook today and I think the mystery of the echo in the cave is not the mystery of india but something much darker. Its more like the mystery that's at the heart of anxiety and panic.

[@ER1CwC]

Do people think Adela is racist deep down, despite her intellectual beliefs? Yet also attracted to Aziz, or just sexually repressed? What a complex character.

[@rufus-t415]

Judy Davis is so beautiful in this film.

[@davidryan1295]

Arguably Lean's best.

[@laurenceesposito3393]

This was quite a movie. Very much a mystery and a muddle. However, class struggle is at the center of it and the movie points this out and shows how so many have not grown any further in understanding and caring for one another. Performances, direction and cinematography (gorgeous) work together beautifully and I must say, purchase the blu-ray DVD. It is gold. Loved the movie and I feel that it is a marvelous ending to a great director's work. Just something else.

[@tomfield4062]

Absolutely love this movie and have watched it many times.

[@ranjanpenkar5511]

Glad to learn of David Leans India connection. His Indian wife was Sheila Matkar. They remained married for 17 years. He married many other whites, half a dozen maybe, but they were together for 5/6 years only. Sadly he did not have a child with his Indian wife.

[@ranjanpenkar5511]

Sorry her name was Laila Matkar

[@bobbyhanly3466]

He got around alright. A friend said he got through over 1,000 women. Must have shot a lot of blanks as he had only one acknowledged child.

[@Arushi701]

As an Indian I loved the portrayal of the setting; it looked like the videos and pictures we have of Colonial India! Such attention to detail is rarely seen in western films showing foreign nations. But to be honest, I really didn't understand the plot. Aziz was clearly innocent, so what happened in the cave? Echoes or claustrophobia cannot cause hallucinations about being assaulted anywhere in the world. IMO they should've chosen a different story to use the same themes, cause that was just confusing.

[@jearnott]

The clue is in the dialogue beforehand. Adela is seduced by India and it’s culture and sexually frustrated, so imagines a rape - it’s all in the novel. This innocent picnic has devastating results.

[@tomfield4062]

Adella is going through a sexual awakening as she falls under the seduction of India. The scene on the bike is instructive and foreshadows the trip to the caves (an orifice into the earth).. Miss Quested (a virgin), rides among phallic shaped plants and stares at sexually lurid statutes before being chased by a pack of screeching monkeys, symbolic of her repressed sexuality coming to the surface, which terrifies her as she flees from it and them. In the cave as the echo hits her she has an orgasm, which so unnerves her she imagines Aziz has assaulted her, when in reality she has been assaulted by India itself.The ambiguity brilliantly exposes our own preconceived prejudices based on which side we take. Lean forces us to choose who to believe.

[@Arushi701]

@ Eh, I don’t get how being in a cave can cause you to have an orgasm, which in turn may lead you to believe that you’ve been assaulted.

[@RGBSF]

3:04 - Willem Dafoe blackface?

[@MrSebboxxx]

This movie has some really great scenes 🙂especially when MrsMoore and Dr. Aziz meet at night in a moschee 🙂

[@nitinthakur6569]

Where can I watch the full movie.

[@JasonBagherian]

It's on Amazon Prime here in the UK or you could get the DVD or Blu-Ray.

[@Techn9cian123]

Does anyone know of any other good films set during the British Raj?

[@andrewlenihan6548]

The Jewel in the Crown

[@ranjanpenkar5511]

Bhowani Junction starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger.

[@TheSeeker1960]

Ghandi

[@axnyslie]

RRR

[@jearnott]

‘Heat and Dust’ (1983) this is an absolute Merchant Ivory classic - similar themes.

[@hamburgareable]

Entertaining, abstract mystical movie in the David Lean catalogue and one of the best. But its a shame David Lean is not alive since 89 to convince today´s Hollywood that they should make movies like this anymore. Nowadays, its all MCU and all superheroes. But those aside, your channel and your videos, keep em both up, Jason! Kudos to you, mate! Could you also upload Peter Weir´s Witness (1985)? Just saying. Sincerely, Henok GH.

[@JasonBagherian]

Just started working on Rocky, the audio is terrible. Witness is a good film, I'll add it to the list. Won't be posting as many videos now as I'm back working full time, maybe 1 or 2 a week. Cheers

[@zztops4504]

Nothing was in the cave. The cave gave her the creeps so to speak.

[@reneedennis2011]

What's with Muppets at the end?!? 😂

[@majestyk3337]

Those are Feebles.

[@reneedennis2011]

@@majestyk3337 I didn't know that. Thanks!

[@desa415]

He is a protester dressed up like a Hindu god.

[@bubbamalone2318]

It’s from a Peter Jackson film called Meet the Feebles

[@anupambphoto]

I think it really astounds me that the great Alec Guiness, played the role of an indian man, so I'm slightly glad, such things don't happen anymore. It is incoherent, it didn't''t stick with abstract topics, spirituality or the oppressive racism of the british rule in india.