A2 - Sunday, March 6, 1983 - North Shore News

strictly personal

Oh, for

by Bob Hunter

I SAW THE MOVIE Gandhi. It was the best movie I’ve seen since Caligula — and over-all, probably the best movie [ve seen in my life.

The technical achievement is one thing and plenty has been written about it. The camera and the sound system take you there.

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important now than at any time since his death by an assassin’s bullet in 1948. In an era. when we are so grossly over-armed that we

thousands of times over, it

liberation of his country — came at an enormous price, namely the partition of the subcontinent into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.

In a vital sense, he failed.

Yet when he said “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind,” he spoke directly to the players in the nuclear arms—race.—And—whern + said, “Civil disobedience is

to the buzzing ~ ifritatingly off to the side. Such scenes as the

massacre at Amritsar, in 1919, when British General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on 1, 500 unarmed men, women and children, are so realistic as to leave your nervous system shouting for it to end.

And the funeral scene, with 300,000 people taking part, was an historic event in itself. At the very least, you come away from Gandhi with a vastly heightened understanding of India.

The movie is more than worth it on all these grounds,

but, finally, what distinguishes it so profoundly from other

movies is that it addresses the very heart of the great issue of our time: How, in a nuclear age, to control our primitive impulse to use violence to solve problems. Gandhi appears more

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becomes Clearer than évér that an alternative to violence must be found.

It is one thing to have read Gandhi's writings on the subject of ‘“satyagraha,” meaning non-violence. It 1s quite another to see the discipline applied on a giant screen, in Dolby sound.

As a result of the movie, I think I have a much better insight into both the im- portance and the limitations of non-violence.

As an activist, Gandhi faced down the British in both South Africa and India.

But how well would he done against the Russians in Afghanistan? Or against the Argentine junta? How can the success of the Indian independence movement be applied to the threat of nuclear

an- nihilation?

Gandhi's great political achievement — _ the

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the inherent right of a citizen, he dare not give it up without ceasing to be a man,” he spoke to the rest of us.

He also said, ‘“Non- violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is gfeater than the mightiest weapon of destruction.” One cannot help but pray that he was right, because the weapons we face now have no parallel in history.

How to apply the Mahatma’s teachings to our current deadly impasse — that is the question.

In the end, it was public anything else that turned the tide in favor of India’s nationalist movement.

Gandhi's famous fasts worked only becuase he had already become the spiritual leader of his country. He exerted enormous influence

over his followers, which

But there is no world figure of equal stature, and certainly nobody who can reach across all the borders and ideological and religious and racial barriers dividing the human race.

One wishes, desperately, for a modern Gandhi who could move the world. It is not necessarily impossible for the world to be saved, but history suggests the need for a great leader to act asa Catalyst.

In the end, I think, the message of Gandhi (both movie and man) is that faith

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is the real force that shapes hamanity’s fate. Miracles are made by people.

It’s inspiring. I hope it’s also true.

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CORRECTION

In the advertisement, North Shore News, March 2, the OPENING SPECIAL CUSTOM DRAPERY shouid have read ‘Offer good through March 12.’

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