RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH

                                                           Part 3

Continuing on with the fantastic career of the late Sir Richard Attenborough who died recently at 90. This week we’ll begin looking at his career as a director.

His first effort behind the camera was a biting musical satire entitled Oh What A Lovely War (1969). This is not the easiest genre on which to cut your directorial teeth! To move things along, Attenborough enlisted almost every notable actor in the UK, including Dirk Bogarde, Sir John Gielgud, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Maggie Smith, and many others. I have to say it works only intermittently, consisting of numerous musical numbers satirizing various parts of World War I. But when it works, it is both hilarious and telling. 

Young Winston (1972) is a rather good biopic about the early career of Britain’s most famous Prime Minister. It covers the period up to his election to Parliament at age 26. Attenborough gambled on unknown Simon Ward in the title role, and it paid off. He used old pros Anne Bancroft and Robert Shaw as Churchill’s parents. Churchill’s early life is almost as incredible as his time as a statesman. He fought in and reported on the Boer War, fought in India and the Sudan, was captured and escaped from a POW camp. 

A Bridge Too Far (1977) is the aptly titled story of how the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, designed to penetrate deep into Germany and take all its bridges on the way. Again there is a who’s who of participating actors, this time including Americans. James Caan, Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman and Robert Redford are only a few members of the star-studded cast. The attack works well for a while, then stalls out when the Germans offer more resistance than was thought possible. And General Patton sums it up by saying “I think we went a bridge too far.”

1982 marked the peak of Richard Attenborough’s directing career. For years he had tried without success to get this one made. He finally succeeded, and how! Gandhi is a towering epic, with Ben Kingsley sublime as the peaceable little man who invented non-violence and brought down the world’s biggest empire. Candace Bergen, Edward Fox, Martin Sheen, Trevor Howard and Sir John Mills are just some of the familiar names. The many Indian actors are largely unknown in the West. The film covers the saintly Gandhi’s career up to and through his assassination in 1948. This movie virtually swept the Oscars that year, winning Best Picture, Best Actor for Kingsley, and a golden statue for Richard Attenborough as Best Director. 

All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are OK for 10 and up, factoring in the adult plotlines.