Noms: Picture, Director (David Lean), Actress (Judy Davis), Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Score, Art Direction, Cinematography, Sound, Costume Design
Wins: Supporting Actress, Score
Why I watched it:
1) of the Best Picture nominees from the 80s I hadn't seen, it had the most nominations/wins
2) yeah, that's pretty much it
Interesting story. Strong performances, I especially liked Victor Banerjee (Aziz) and James Fox (Fielding). Stilted script in a lot of places though; It was effective at conveying the racism of the British colonists. Peggy Ashcroft is so sweet - by FAR the most likeable character.
There is a lot of plot in this movie, and I think the film suffered for how much was included. The set up for the actual plot - the day trip to the caves - takes longer than the incident and the entire fallout. While it painted a picture of the culture surrounding the incident well, it felt off to me, and lessened the impact of incident itself. The huge shifts in Adela's relationship to Aziz happened so quickly, it lessened the impact of the character's decision to tell the truth. Something just felt weird about the pacing.
Spoilers/trigger warning: In general, the character of Adela came off to me as a terrible person by the end. As far as I can tell, she falsely accused someone of rape or fabricated being raped completely. You don't really find out what happened. I only mention this, because I don't think it was the intent, but it's definitely what I felt. Ambiguity can be good, but it is possible to be too ambiguous.
I didn't know Alec Guinness was in this movie until the opening credits. Star Wars might be the only movie I'd seen him in, so I wasn't sure what he looked like under his Obi-Wan Kenobi-beard. I spent the rest of the movie trying to spot him. Towards the end, I thought he must be the lawyer for the prosecution. I was so wrong. As the credits rolled, I saw that he actually played Godbole, the Indian professor/mystic. "What in the damn hell?!" It never would have crossed my mind that they would cast a white guy as a Hindu Brahmin. For a film that explicitly discusses cultural prejudices, this seems such a blatantly stupid casting choice. Come on!
"da fuh?": In addition to his casting in general, Godbole's moment seen from the train by Mrs. Moore was a stand out moment of utter weirdness in a movie filled with odd moments. Other moments had some mystery, like the scene where Adela is chased from the ruins by monkeys, but this seemed to be trying to be foreboding and came off as silly. Especially when I realized it was Old Ben.
Surprise appearance: Other than Alec Guinness obviously. When I looked up the actor who played Fielding, I realized why he looked so familiar - he was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (among other things)!
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