A Passage to India

1984
PG
2h 44m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

22K

YOUR RATING

US Home Video Trailer from Columbia Tristar

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2 Videos

93 Photos

Historical Epic Period Drama Adventure Drama History

Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

22K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 2 Oscars
- 22 wins & 26 nominations total

Videos2

Photos93

+ 87

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Storyline

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Trivia
The relationship between writer and director Sir David Lean and Sir Alec Guinness deteriorated during the making of the movie. The final straw came for Guinness when he found out that a large chunk of his scenes had been left on the cutting room floor by Lean. Neither man ever met or spoke to the other again. Lean also managed to fall out with Dame Peggy Ashcroft during production with Lean deliberately shunning her from his table during lunch and dinner. Ashcroft, for her part, was sanguine about his behaviour and dismissed it as Lean's usual petulance.

Goofs
At the Marabar Caves, the elephants and their mahouts are decorated in the South Indian style-ash smeared on their foreheads etc. whereas the story is supposed to have happened in Chandrapore, Bihar. These scenes were clearly shot in South India, perhaps in the caves and hills, near Bangalore.

Quotes
Mrs. Moore: My dear, life rarely gives us what we want at the moment we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.

Connections
Featured in At the Movies: Johnny Dangerously/Micki + Maude/Birdy/A Passage to India (1984)

Soundtracks
Tea For Two
Written by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar

User reviews129

Review

Featured review

Multi-layered masterpiece from the great David Lean

E.M. Forster's multi-layered masterpiece is on the surface the story of a young woman and her passage through India. On another level it's the story of India's independence from British rule. And there are other themes as well: mysticism, reincarnation, the clash of eastern and western cultures and religion. Only master director David Lean could reveal all the levels and he succeeds in this film.

You can watch this film once for each of the levels and always see something new. The sequence of the trip to the Marabar Caves and what happens there is one of the most mysterious in all of film.

Like Kubrick and Hitchcock, Lean can tell a story yet somehow depict things beneath the surface which ads to the richness of the film and gives it a depth all other films lack. It's not an epic like Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia but it's still a terrific film.

Alec Guinness is superb as Professsor Godbhole, teacher/guru/who is he really?. With Judy Davis as Adela Quested, Victor Banerjee as Dr. Aziz H. Ahmed, Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore, and James Fox in a terrific performance as Richard Fielding.