Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 66

Tim in, it-m i immin nqM.ii.aw 'Body Language 9 revives ancient communication Page F2 Guitarist Romero plays with genetic insight Page F6 Friday, January 21, 1983 Austin American -Statesman Section Lush look saves 'Gandhi' from predictably pious tone Am sentient I X) I 1 -tr -f Mit-nTi r- -i I T1 i 1 -V A 1 1 11 i'iiriin-mnni'iiin nr mf '11 By PATRICK TAGGART American-Statesman Staff After a two-month blaze of publicity of the kind that so often accompanies epic films, "Gandhi" has arrived sort of. Exactly why Columbia Pictures would book the film into the small, noisy, out-of-the-way Capital Plaza Cinema after an expensive and time-consuming promotional campaign is a mystery worth looking into, but that for now is another story. What of "Gandhi" itself? The credits tell us that it is directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, the British actor and director whose directorial credits include long, lofty biographies and chronicles such as "Young Winston" and "A Bridge Too Far." Attenborough has admitted that a film about Mohandis K. Gandhi India's greatest modern spiritual and political leader has long been his personal Everest. In mounting this sumptuously photographed and carefully crafted film, Attenborough sets a tone just short of reverential; nevertheless, it's a sober, respectful tone that has become the cliche of film biographies of historic figures.

Ben Kings-ley, as the Mahatma (an Indian word meaning "Great folds his hands and smiles beatifically. He speaks tellingly, economically, but in a small voice. It's the kind of performance audiences have come to expect from such films, and it's what Attenborough delivers. What we have here is faithful, dull filmmaking. At the end of the three-hours-and-10-minutes (plus intermission) running time, it's clear that Attenborough's subject was infinitely more daring than his chronicler.

Martin Sheen, above, and Candice Bergen, right, show up as American window dressing in but Ben Kingsley's performance as the 'Great Soul' is sincere enough and proves he knows something about sly humor. 'It's clear that Attenborough's subject was infinitely more daring than his British general Dyer ordered his troops to fire on 15,000 peaceful demonstrators, packs power beyond the obvious violence, as does a march on a British salt works. In contrast is the cloying depiction of the death of Gandhi's wife and talky scenes of the Mahatma meeting with other Indian leaders. And then there are the appearances by Candice Bergen as photographer Margaret Bourke-White and Martin Sheen playing a character amalgam of three Western reporters who shared Gandhi's vision. These two and Ian Charleson, who plays an old friend and looks as if he just walked off the "Chariots of Fire" set are tossed in as classy window-dressing.

The production design (by Stuart Craig on several locations) and photography (by Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor) are two major attractions, as is the sincere performance by Kingsley, who knows a thing or two about sly humor. All of these contribute to a "Gandhi," that, while frequently drab and predictable, remains highly watchable. The film opens today for an exclusive run at the Capital Plaza Cinema, and a seat close to the screen is recommended. The roar of air conditioning fans all but drowned out some of the dialogue at a recent screening. rated PG for incidental violence, at the Capital Plaza.) i I Review r' y'yA I -K I 1 1 umphed without moral penalty.

Attenborough, who directed from a script by John Briley, begins the action with Gandhi's 1948 assassination by a Hindu fanatic. That mercifully out of the way, he returns to Gandhi's early years as a young lawyer in South Africa, where he is the victim of repeated racial insult. These early scenes help explain how Gandhi's passion for world brotherhood was forged. It portrays a man who was not a good speaker but whose words had enormous power, a man who would have been ill at ease in office but who was undeniably a born leader. Other key events are chronicled with varying effectiveness: the 1919 massacre at Amritsar, at which the I Still, it is almost impossible not to at least like "Gandhi." The subject, after all, is a man whose work for peace and independence for India was something of a miracle in a brutal, militarized 20th-century world.

He inspired his countrymen to fight for their freedom nonviolently and, amazingly, it worked. The idea of turning the other cheek to shame and wear down one's oppressor may seem cruelly naive in our 'nuke 'em' age, but this "small brown man," as he was so frequently described by the Europeans who viewed him with such nervousness and awe, proved that it could truimph. And it tri "4 1 3 C3. 4 1201 S. Congress fSoip Greek 443-1966 EE Saloon A NEIGHBORHOOD BAR MUSIC BEER QARDEN i i RESTAURANT Tonight Tonight Sat.

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