· Commentary with Producer Richard Goodwin
· “E.M. Forster: A Profile of an Author” - Elements of Forster's life and some of the main themes within the book are covered in this featurette.
· “An Epic Takes Shape” - Cast & Crew talk about the genesis of the project.
· “An Indian Affair” - Covers the main period of production over in India.
· “Only Connect: A Vision of India” - Covers the whole area of Post Production and also includes the final days of shooting in the studios at Shepperton.
· “Casting a Classic” - Priscilla John (Casting Director) talks about casting the film and the challenges of bringing characters from the book to life.
· “David Lean: Shooting with the Master” - This featurette takes a look at Lean as a Director with emphasis on this film being the last of his career.
· "Reflections of David Lean" - A featurette on David Lean that appeared on the last DVD release of the film.
· Blu-ray Exclusive: Enhanced Graphics and Trivia Track
Maybe we'll get a better cover this time?
Last edited by tavernier on Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The novel is a masterpiece of moral ambiguity but the movie takes a point of view regarding innocence or guilt which is heavy handed.
David Lean does not know quite how to handle a strong woman character and the Judy Davis character is a muddle.
Alec Guinness is borderline laughable as an Indian wise man.
If you want to invent a scene showing us female sexual horror, please spare me the screaming baboons.
Badly scripted wooden characters in a languid and long search for a film editor.
Well, ignore all that. Late Lean is easy to criticise and I've had just about enough of it. Epic filmmaking has not been the same since he left us and this is a "Passage" I intend to take again, particularly since the special features look pretty good.
And, do it the way the Brits really did when booking a passage from Britain to India - strictly "posh" cabins - "port out, starboard home" for maximum scenery coming and going.
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote, Belmondo. Lean's adaptation is extremely problematic, especially Guinness' miscasting, but God help me it's a movie I find tremendously enjoyable to watch. Like John Huston, Lean had an incredible gift for making his movies unfold "novelistically" (i.e., starting out with specific details of scene and character and then, through rich and careful accretions, providing a pervading sense of time and place). Passage to India may not be his greatest accomplishment, but it is interesting to see him make a return (of sorts) to adapting a genuine classic outright. It always makes me regret that he never managed to do Nostromo.
