Region: ABC
Video: Enhanced Widescreen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
DVD Aspect Ratio: Vistavision (1.66:1)
Audio: Dolby Digital w/ sub-woofer channel
Language: English, French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Weight factor: 1 item(s)

Plot Synopsis

A Passage to India, director David Lean's final film (for which he also received editing credit), 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 raping 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 too complex to describe here becomes a heroine of the Indian Independence movement. A Passage to India was nominated for several Academy Awards, scoring wins in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft) and Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre). A theatrical version of A Passage to India, written by Santha Rama Rau, was previously adapted for television by the BBC in the mid-1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Editorial Reviews:

David Lean returned to the screen after a self-imposed absence of 14 years with this vivid, well-directed adaptation of the Forster classic. The director has slightly altered the focus of the novel, rendering its key event in a somewhat less ambiguous light, but, in general, stays faithful to its tale of clashing cultures. Lean perfectly captures Forster's satire of the smug insularity and poisonous racism of the British Raj of 1924, setting the myopia of its members against the exoticism and natural beauty of the subcontinent. Young Adela Quested (Judy Davis), something of a hothouse flower, is far more enlightened than her fellow Brits on matters of race, but also far more susceptible to such beauty, which induces in her a sort of subtly erotic fever. What actually transpired between she and the hospitable Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee) in the Marabar caves was left a mystery by the author, but Lean implies a fit of virginal hysteria on the part of Adela rather than any violation. This dilutes the complexity of Forster's novel, while reducing Aziz to the role of victim. Yet, as the tragedy gains momentum, the novelist's themes -- the destructiveness of colonialism, the unbridgeable differences between the two cultures, and the wisdom of the older civilization -- remain clear. Among a brilliant cast, Judy Davis seems particularly inspired, and Dame Peggy Ashcroft is memorable as well. The one glitch is the casting of Guinness as an unintentionally comic Godbole. Lean's characteristic visual splendor is nearly a forgone conclusion. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide