A common cinematic phenomenon is the cycle of films on the same or related topics. This film, unusually, belongs to two separate cycles. During the eighties the British entertainment industry was going through a cycle of productions about the British Raj in India; Attenborough's "Gandhi", Merchant-Ivory's "Heat and Dust" and television versions of "The Jewel in the Crown" and "The Far Pavilions". A film of "A Passage to India" fitted in well with this trend. It also, however, started the British cinema's E.M. Forster cycle. Before 1984, no film had ever been based on his works; over the next eight years, four of his other five novels were to be filmed.
In the British-ruled India of the 1920s a young Englishwoman, Adela Quested, travels to the city of Chandrapore in order to meet her fiancé, local magistrate Ronny Heaslop, accompanied by her future mother-in-law, Mrs Moore. On an expedition to visit the Marabar Caves, a local beauty spot, Miss Quested accuses Dr Aziz, the Indian doctor who organised the expedition, of attempted rape. Aziz is arrested and put on trial.
Which brings us to the main problem. Aziz, as played by Victor Banerjee, seems far too decent a young man to contemplate such a despicable act. Miss Quested, as played by Judy Davis, seems far too decent a young woman to make a false accusation. Yet it seems that we must accept that one or the other has taken place.
E.M. Forster's original novel was rather ambiguous about what actually happened at the caves; we never even discover exactly what Aziz is accused of. The word "rape" is never used, and he is merely said to have "insulted" Miss Quested- a Victorian euphemism that could cover several sexual offences of varying seriousness. (According to one, probably apocryphal, account, Forster was unable to explain what was supposed to have happened because, as a lifelong homosexual born long before sex education formed part of the national curriculum, he only had the most hazy idea of the female anatomy or the mechanics of heterosexual intercourse). The film does not take a definite stand, but leans towards the explanation that Aziz is innocent and that Miss Quested suffered some sort of hallucination, brought on by the heat, the curious echo in the caves and her own overwrought erotic imagination.
All the entries in the great Raj Cycle dealt with relations between the colonial masters and their Indian subjects, and this film is no exception. The attitude of the British, such as Ronny and the police chief MacBryde, towards Indians is condescending, snobbish and racist. Although they are hard-working and conscientious, they frequently express opinions which today would be highly offensive but which in the twenties probably seemed unexceptionable. The two main exceptions are Mrs Moore, who sympathises with Indian aspirations, and the liberal schoolmaster Richard Fielding, who goes out of his way to befriend Indians, often preferring their company to that of his countrymen.
Yet to my mind Fielding came across as less admirable than either Forster or the film-makers probably intended. He may be liberal on racial issues, but far less so on sexual ones. Whereas the other Britons automatically assume that Aziz is guilty of the charges against him, Fielding, on no more evidence, automatically assumes that he is innocent, for no other reason than that Aziz is a personal friend of his. The allegations made by Miss Quested are serious ones and deserve to be investigated seriously, not dismissed with a quiet word in the police chief's ear, which would be Fielding's way of disposing of the matter. In the event, despite the prejudice which many members of the British community feel against Aziz, he is given a fair trial before an Indian judge, with Indian lawyers of his choice to defend him, and is eventually acquitted. Perhaps without meaning to, the film pays a back-handed tribute to the British Empire; it is doubtful if similar standards of justice would have been extended during this period to a black American accused of raping a white woman.
This was David Lean's final film, made fourteen years after his penultimate one, "Ryan's Daughter". Although in the forties Lean made some small-scale, intimate films, such as "Brief Encounter" and "Great Expectations", in the latter part of his career he became best known for large-scale epics set against tumultuous historical events, such as the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution and the Irish independence struggle. He brings a similar approach to "A Passage to India", even though the story is set in the relatively quiet decade of the twenties. This was possibly the wrong approach. Although he touches upon the Indian independence movement, Forster's novel was more concerned with personal relationships than with great historical developments, and the film might have benefited from a more intimate touch.
Lean was also noted for his ability to get the best from his leading actors, but there are few outstanding performances in this film, even though it stars some of the best-known names of the British cinema. The one exception is perhaps Peggy Ashcroft's performance as Mrs Moore, for which she won a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar. Lean is said to have quarrelled with Alec Guinness (who had appeared in several other Lean films) after several of his scenes ended up on the cutting-room floor). It might have been kinder if Lean had excised Guinness's role as Professor Godbole altogether. Although he is never quite as embarrassing as Peter Sellars' "Goodness Gracious Me!" attempt to imitate an Indian doctor in "The Millionairess" twenty years earlier, we are always uncomfortably aware we are watching a white man, especially in the scene where Guinness is bathing his legs in the pool and some of his make-up washes off, revealing white skin underneath. Overall, "A Passage to India" is a handsome, competently-made film, but it is emotionally uninvolving and certainly not a masterpiece like "Dr Zhivago" or "Bridge on the River Kwai". 7/10
In the British-ruled India of the 1920s a young Englishwoman, Adela Quested, travels to the city of Chandrapore in order to meet her fiancé, local magistrate Ronny Heaslop, accompanied by her future mother-in-law, Mrs Moore. On an expedition to visit the Marabar Caves, a local beauty spot, Miss Quested accuses Dr Aziz, the Indian doctor who organised the expedition, of attempted rape. Aziz is arrested and put on trial.
Which brings us to the main problem. Aziz, as played by Victor Banerjee, seems far too decent a young man to contemplate such a despicable act. Miss Quested, as played by Judy Davis, seems far too decent a young woman to make a false accusation. Yet it seems that we must accept that one or the other has taken place.
E.M. Forster's original novel was rather ambiguous about what actually happened at the caves; we never even discover exactly what Aziz is accused of. The word "rape" is never used, and he is merely said to have "insulted" Miss Quested- a Victorian euphemism that could cover several sexual offences of varying seriousness. (According to one, probably apocryphal, account, Forster was unable to explain what was supposed to have happened because, as a lifelong homosexual born long before sex education formed part of the national curriculum, he only had the most hazy idea of the female anatomy or the mechanics of heterosexual intercourse). The film does not take a definite stand, but leans towards the explanation that Aziz is innocent and that Miss Quested suffered some sort of hallucination, brought on by the heat, the curious echo in the caves and her own overwrought erotic imagination.
All the entries in the great Raj Cycle dealt with relations between the colonial masters and their Indian subjects, and this film is no exception. The attitude of the British, such as Ronny and the police chief MacBryde, towards Indians is condescending, snobbish and racist. Although they are hard-working and conscientious, they frequently express opinions which today would be highly offensive but which in the twenties probably seemed unexceptionable. The two main exceptions are Mrs Moore, who sympathises with Indian aspirations, and the liberal schoolmaster Richard Fielding, who goes out of his way to befriend Indians, often preferring their company to that of his countrymen.
Yet to my mind Fielding came across as less admirable than either Forster or the film-makers probably intended. He may be liberal on racial issues, but far less so on sexual ones. Whereas the other Britons automatically assume that Aziz is guilty of the charges against him, Fielding, on no more evidence, automatically assumes that he is innocent, for no other reason than that Aziz is a personal friend of his. The allegations made by Miss Quested are serious ones and deserve to be investigated seriously, not dismissed with a quiet word in the police chief's ear, which would be Fielding's way of disposing of the matter. In the event, despite the prejudice which many members of the British community feel against Aziz, he is given a fair trial before an Indian judge, with Indian lawyers of his choice to defend him, and is eventually acquitted. Perhaps without meaning to, the film pays a back-handed tribute to the British Empire; it is doubtful if similar standards of justice would have been extended during this period to a black American accused of raping a white woman.
This was David Lean's final film, made fourteen years after his penultimate one, "Ryan's Daughter". Although in the forties Lean made some small-scale, intimate films, such as "Brief Encounter" and "Great Expectations", in the latter part of his career he became best known for large-scale epics set against tumultuous historical events, such as the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution and the Irish independence struggle. He brings a similar approach to "A Passage to India", even though the story is set in the relatively quiet decade of the twenties. This was possibly the wrong approach. Although he touches upon the Indian independence movement, Forster's novel was more concerned with personal relationships than with great historical developments, and the film might have benefited from a more intimate touch.
Lean was also noted for his ability to get the best from his leading actors, but there are few outstanding performances in this film, even though it stars some of the best-known names of the British cinema. The one exception is perhaps Peggy Ashcroft's performance as Mrs Moore, for which she won a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar. Lean is said to have quarrelled with Alec Guinness (who had appeared in several other Lean films) after several of his scenes ended up on the cutting-room floor). It might have been kinder if Lean had excised Guinness's role as Professor Godbole altogether. Although he is never quite as embarrassing as Peter Sellars' "Goodness Gracious Me!" attempt to imitate an Indian doctor in "The Millionairess" twenty years earlier, we are always uncomfortably aware we are watching a white man, especially in the scene where Guinness is bathing his legs in the pool and some of his make-up washes off, revealing white skin underneath. Overall, "A Passage to India" is a handsome, competently-made film, but it is emotionally uninvolving and certainly not a masterpiece like "Dr Zhivago" or "Bridge on the River Kwai". 7/10