SIFF Archival: Gunga Din (1939)

Director: George Stevens
Country: USA

Three British he-man-woman-hatin' sergeants (Cary Grant, Victor McLaglin and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) take on a thugee sect in 19th-century India supported by not only the titular untouchable (Sam Jaffe), but also a strong colonialist spirit, racism, class-based hypocrisy, historical revisionism, discomforting "brown savage" stereotypes, and, last but not least, the young woman seated behind me applauding when Indians were killed (your guess why is as good as mine).

It would be all too easy to dismiss this film, not to mention any similarly overt and proudly racist film from this era of filmmaking, outright due to the above demerits, but this would also reject the many things about "Gunga Din" that do work (though on the flip side, we shouldn't also make the mistake of letting "Gunga Din" - and its ilk - completely off the hook for its Orientalist nature simply for being made seventy years ago).

The script's (laugh-out-loud funny) humor is played perfectly by the three leads who give great performances and the action scenes are not just taut and exhilarating, but well-constructed even when compared with today’s action films (the unfortunate use of undercranking notwithstanding). The same can be said for the editing; the film races by breathlessly, but never feels rushed or choppy. The real star of this film, however, is Joseph August, the cinematographer. The compositions are consistently brilliant and crisp, bringing a high degree of artistry to both action and dialogue scenes. August also has a remarkable understanding of how to shoot mattes and backdrops and make them look completely real (some were revealed to me as such only when reading about the film afterwards). It's rare to see a cinematographer with such highly developed special effect skills.

From a pure entertainment standpoint, this is one of the better action-adventure films and is well worth seeking out, granted of course that you can look past its nasty Orientalist agenda.