Although it wasn't intended as his last film, A Passage to India allows David Lean to go out with a bang. This the sort of big film that should really a summer block buster- an intelligent, beautiful and perfectally acted epic.
Based on the novel by E.M. Forester (which is often considered to be one of the greatest of the 20th century, and I am ashmed to save I have not read), this was one of the first movie I had seen in a long time where I genuinley did not know what was going to happen next. There are not twists in the thriller sense, but like life, the movie often goes in a direction that we do not expect. For that reason, I will not describe much of the plot, and I feel that the less you know going into the film, the better.
Set in India (duh) during the British rule of the 1920's, the movie is really an ensamble piece. The main plot revolves around the nominal protagonist, Dr. Ahmed Aziz (Victor Banerjee). By a strange happenstance, Dr. Aziz befriends the elderly Mrs. Moore (Dame Peggy Ashcroft, who won an Oscar for her performance), as well as her future daughter-in-law Miss Quested (Judy Davis). Their relationship plays out among the backdrop of political uphevil against the British rule in India, with a lot racisim against the native people from their occupiers.
All of the familer epic Lean elements are here. An historical subject, great photography and art direction, a Maurice Jarre score, and lots of trains. Unlike virtually most directors of epics, Lean was able to make his movie an intellectual experince as well as a visual one. His super-spectacles cost millions upon millions, yet he never sold out to the lowest common demonator. In fact, I would probably say that this is his smartest film (with maybe Great Expectations coming close). The movie lacks the romanticism of Doctor Zhivago and the spirituality of Lawrence of Arabia, but in its place is his most firmly political arguments. It's a pretty strong commendation of British imperalism, although it never resorts to presenting the argument as an after school special.
So see this movie. Like all Lean epics, the same rule of thumb applies- see it on as big a screen as a possible, with a good quality sound system, and take a passge into history.
A Passage to India (1984)