I watched Gandhi last night in celebration of his birthday! This won’t be a thorough write-up, but I just want to make three points:
1. You know the reporter who said that the moral authority of the British empire had collapsed, or something to that effect? That was Martin Sheen! When I first watched the movie, that didn’t mean much to me, since that was before the West Wing, plus I hadn’t yet seen the movies in which Martin Sheen stood out to me (Dead Zone, O, Firestarter, the one with Jimmy Smits about voodoo).
2. I’ve been watching Cheers lately, so I was surprised to see John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin) riding next to Candace Bergen on Gandhi. His voice didn’t even sound like Cliff’s! It was like Cliff speaking with Martin Sheen’s voice!
3. Gandhi said that turning the other cheek will make your enemies respect you. Is that true? Will letting yourself get beaten up make your enemies respect you? That’s not what’s conveyed on TV shows! I was thinking about this because I watched a Dr. Phil program about bullying. Dr. Phil told the victim that she should use her karate skills on them, since she was a brown belt. Or, more accurately, he said she shouldn’t do that, but he’d like to enjoy the fantasy. Many like to see the wicked get their just due. Gandhi tried to see beyond that, though, for, when Indians were killing Brits, Gandhi was concerned about the Brits’ families. But I’m not sure if his peaceful approach would have worked with Hitler.