A Passage To India (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
by David Lean
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DVD details
Actor: Victor BanerjeeDirector: David Lean
Brand: Sony
Performer: Judy Davis
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Hindi (Original Language); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.77:1
Running Time: 164 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-15
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of A Passage To India (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: David Lean's last film
Summary: 5 Stars
The following is the press release for this new special edition:
A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film breaks no new ground cinematically, but remains an exquisitely assembled harkback to such earlier Lean epics as Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. Based on the novel by E. M. Forster, the film is set in colonial India in 1924. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), a sheltered, well-educated British woman, arrives in the town of Chandrapore, where she hopes to experience "the real India". Here she meets and befriends Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who, despite longstanding racial and social taboos, moves with relative ease and freedom amongst highborn British circles. Feeling comfortable with Adela, Aziz invites her to accompany him on a visit to the Marabar caves. Adela has previously exhibited bizarre, almost mystical behavior during other ventures into the Indian wilderness: this time, she emerges from the caves showing signs of injury and ill usage. To Aziz' horror, he is accused by Adela of assaulting her. Typically, the British ruling class rallies to Adela's defense, virtually convicting Aziz before the trial ever begins. Though he is eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence (in fact, director Lean never shows us what really happened), Aziz is ruined in the eyes of both the British and his own people-as is Adela. Woven into these proceedings is a subplot involving Adela's elderly travelling companion Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), who through a series of plot twists becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture, winning in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre).
Special Features:
Commentary with Producer Richard Goodwin
"E.M. Forster: A Profile of an Author" - Elements of Forster's life and some of the main themes within the book are covered in this featurette.
"An Epic Takes Shape" - Cast & Crew talk about the genesis of the project.
"An Indian Affair" - Covers the main period of production over in India.
"Only Connect: A Vision of India" - Covers the whole area of Post Production and also includes the final days of shooting in the studios at Shepperton.
"Casting a Classic" - Priscilla John (Casting Director) talks about casting the film and the challenges of bringing characters from the book to life.
"David Lean: Shooting with the Master" - This featurette takes a look at Lean as a Director with emphasis on this film being the last of his career.
"Reflections of David Lean" - A featurette on David Lean that appeared on the last DVD release
End of press release. I've always loved this film, and I'm glad to see it getting a special edition treatment. At first I figured it was Criterion that was responsible. How surprised I was to see it was Sony! This film has a lot of truly fascinating character development. Dr. Aziz goes from the kind of easily intimidated and emotionally battered employee that the British must have loved to have as a compliant colonial subject, to a frightened defendant who has had injustice snatch him from his lonely but well-ordered life, to a bitter and empowered man who thinks identifying with the plight of his fellow Indians means he must abandon all friendships with westerners, in particular that of the compassionate Richard Fielding. Sir Alec Guiness plays the minor but important role of Professor Godbole, a man whose beliefs puzzle Fielding. When Aziz has been unjustly accused, Fielding wants to mount some kind of campaign, to perform some kind of action on Aziz' behalf. Godbole calmly insists that although he cares about Aziz very much, nothing he or anyone does will matter - the whole thing has been predetermined. This is one of the issues that plays like background music in the film - that of Western views of human action and divine purpose working synergistically versus Eastern views on the same themes - karma versus Christian endeavor. I truly believe 1984 was a year in which the Academy got it right - Amadeus was indeed the best picture. However, this film is a photo-finish second and I highly recommend it.
Description of A Passage To India (2-Disc Collector's Edition)
Set in 1928, this film portrays an indelibly sardonic picture of British life in territorial India.The story concerns Adela Quested, who is a free-spirited British woman, played by (Judy Davis), who has settled in India and is to marry Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), a town magistrate. She is befriended by the charming Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), but it's a friendship that ultimately leads to tragedy.This adaptation of E.M. Forster's mysterious tale of British racism in colonial India turned out to be master director David Lean's final film. Subtle and grand at the same time, Lean's adaptation is faithful to the book, rendering its blend of the mystical and the all-too human with exquisite precision. Judy Davis plays a young British woman traveling in India with her fiancé's mother. While visiting a tourist attraction, she has a frightening moment in a cave--one that she eventually spins from an instant of mental meltdown into a tale of a physical attack that ruins several lives. Lean captures Forster's sense of awe at the kind of ageless wisdom and inexplicable phenomena to be encountered in India, as well as the British tendency to dismiss it all as savage, rather than simply different. --Marshall Fine
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