A Passage to India
Director: David Lean. Cast: Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox, Alec Guinness, Nigel
Havers, Michael Culver, Antonia Pemberton, Richard Wright, Art Malik. Screenplay: David Lean (based on
the novel by E.M. Forster).
As in his Lawrence of Arabia, director David Lean again demonstrates the darndest insistence to
make imperial domination and Eastern uprising as scenic as possible. A Passage to India is a
studious and reasonably involving adaptation of Forster's novel, the premise of which—a young English
lady visiting her prospective fiancé in India is allegedly raped by a warm and ingratiating doctor native
to the country—is sufficiently combustible to guarantee at least a few screen fireworks. Good thing, too,
since Lean once again works with an unimpeachable earnestness that realizes itself as a shocking and
debilitating impersonality. A Passage to India aims to capture an epic confrontation of raging
tempers, the formal adjudication of Adela Quested's "rape" clearly standing in for the burgeoning
impatience of the Indian people under British rule and the opposing, unbroken disdain of the
British for the people they still call their subjects.
When the film's director helms the project with no more compassion or feeling than the British rule their
empire, however, one has difficulty engaging too deeply in the material. What keeps the project afloat
(and its nearly three hours do pass with surprising briskness) are the solid ensemble performances,
particularly from celebrated stage actress Peggy Ashcroft, as well as Lean's own ever-reliable eye for
mighty visuals. Yes, David Lean is still keeping us at arm's length from the emotions of his
story, and this being his final film, we would never see him reconnect with the world of feeling;
nevertheless, as always, the view afforded us from that far end of Lean's arm is a spectacular one to
behold. Grade: B–
- Academy Award Nominations and *Winners:
- Best Picture
- Best Director: David Lean
- Best Actress: Judy Davis
- *Best Supporting Actress: Peggy Ashcroft
- Best Adapted Screenplay: David Lean
- Best Cinematography: Ernest Day
- Best Art Direction: John Box and Hugh Scaife
- Best Costume Design: Judy Moorcroft
- Best Film Editing: David Lean
- *Best Original Score: Maurice Jarre
- Best Sound
- Golden Globe Nominations and *Winners:
- Best Director: David Lean
- *Best Supporting Actress: Peggy Ashcroft
- Best Screenplay: David Lean
- *Best Original Score: Maurice Jarre
- *Best Foreign Film
- Other Awards:
- Los Angeles Film Critics Association—Best Supporting Actress: Peggy Ashcroft
- New York Film Critics Circle—Best Picture; Best Director: David Lean; Best Supporting Actress: Peggy
Ashcroft
- National Board of Review—Best Picture; Best Director: David Lean; Best Actress: Peggy Ashcroft;
Best Actor: Victor Banerjee