Fall film preview 2014

Spaceships! Sequels! Hobbits! Kiddie cartoons!

If that movie lineup sounds familiar, that’s because it looks a lot like the one from fall of last year -- or even this past summer. It seems Hollywood really believes in the mantra, “They liked it the first time, they’ll like it the seventh.”

At least the latter part of 2014 is light on super-hero flicks. Not that they’re unworthy; we just had quite a raft of them over the past few months, and it’ll be nice to trade them in for some more serious fare angling for Oscars -- spandex for starched collars, so to speak.

So here is our preview of fall films (release dates subject to change). Ones I think look particularly promising get a gold star (★).

A Walk Among the Tombstones (Sept. 19) -- A kidnapping thriller starring Liam Neeson? Sounds like a retread, but the twist here is Neeson plays a disgraced cop hired by a mob boss to find out who killed his wife. Think hard noir.

This is Where I Leave You (Sept. 19) -- A quartet of adult siblings -- Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll -- must deal with the death of their father and their (alive) and overbearing mother (Jane Fonda).

★ The Boxtrolls (Sept. 26) -- Stop-motion animation gets a jump-start in this delightful-looking tale of ugly trash-collecting critters who like to dress themselves in old boxes. Voices of Ben Kingsley and Elle Fanning.

Jimi: All Is by My Side (Sept. 26) -- The long-gestating biopic of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix finally arrives starring Outkast’s André Benjamin in the title role. He has limited acting experience and Hendrix’s estate balked at granting the rights to any of his iconic songs, so…

The Equalizer (Sept. 26) -- The “Geezer Spy” genre gets another try with Denzel Washington tackling a reprise of the cheesy 1980s TV series. He plays a home improvement store drone who helps crime victims by night. The Lowes Ranger?

Annabelle (Oct. 3) -- A prequel of the hit horror flick “The Conjuring,” starring that creepy doll in her origin story.

★ Gone Girl (Oct. 10) -- One of the most hotly anticipated movies of early fall, this drama from David Fincher (“The Social Network”), based on the fanatically popular book by Gillian Flynn (who also wrote the screenplay), stars Ben Affleck as a seemingly perfect husband who may or may not have something to do with his disappeared wife (Rosamund Pike).

The Judge (Oct. 10) -- Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall play battling father and son lawyers whose relationship changes when the dad is accused of a serious crime. With Vera Farmiga.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Oct. 10) -- The beloved children’s book by Judith Viorst gets the big screen treatment starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner as parents of a precocious 11-year-old boy having a moment.

Birdman (Oct. 17) -- OK, there is one super-hero movie this fall, but it’s an offbeat black dramedy from “Babel” director Alejandro González Iñárritu starring Michael Keaton as a washed-up actor who mounts an unlikely Broadway production about a masked man he used to play. With Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Zach Galifianakis.

The Best of Me (Oct. 17) -- The newest mushy romance/drama based on a Nicholas Sparks book stars Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden as a couple rekindling their teenage love.

Laggies (Oct. 24) -- Keira Knightley plays a 30-ish woman whose life is stuck in neutral. She decides to get away for a while by bunking with teen Chloe Grace Moretz and falls for her dad (Sam Rockwell).

★ St. Vincent (Oct. 24) -- Bill Murray could be looking at another Oscar nomination for one of his signature funny/sad characters, a misanthropic loner who reluctantly babysits/mentors the troubled young boy next door. Co-starring Melissa McCarthy.

Horns (Oct. 31) -- Daniel Radcliffe wakes up after a personal tragedy to find that he’s sprouting demon’s horns from his head. With Juno Temple.

★ Whiplash (October) -- This indie darling took top honors at Sundance Film Festival and stars Miles Teller as an aspiring jazz drummer taken under the harsh wing of a fearsome conductor (J.K. Simmons).

★ Interstellar (Nov. 7) -- The latest from bold filmmaker Christopher Nolan (“Inception”) stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts from a dying Earth who make a desperate space journey through a wormhole. Minds, prepare to be tripped.

The Theory of Everything (Nov. 7) -- This biopic of Stephen Hawking stars Eddie Redmayne as the famed astrophysicist, focusing on his early life and romance before being diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). With Felicity Jones.

Big Hero 6 (Nov. 7) -- A teen robotics expert builds his own bodyguard in this Disney animation flick based on a lesser-known comic book.

The Homesman (Nov. 7) -- Tommy Lee Jones directed, co-wrote and stars in this Western about a claim jumper who helps a tough pioneer (Hilary Swank) escort three mentally troubled women through dangerous territory.

Rosewater (Nov. 7) -- Don’t expect this to be a hit in Iran, as it details the detention and torture of a Western journalist (Gael García Bernal) by the Islamist regime. An unlikely directorial debut from TV jokester Jon Stewart.

Dumb and Dumber To (Nov. 14) -- Geriatric dimwits? A reprise of the comically dumb duo of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels seems like a desperate effort to cash in on faded glory. But the trailer’s actually funny, and the Farrelly brothers are due for a hit.

★ Fury (Nov. 14) -- Brad Pitt plays a World War II tank commander who takes his crew on a dire mission behind enemy lines. Directed by David Ayer, who made the terrific but hardly seen “End of Watch.”

★ Foxcatcher (Nov. 14) -- Steve Carell plays waaaaay against type as a wealthy Olympic wrestling philanthropist who murdered one of the team athletes. Co-starring Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. Directed by Bennett Miller (“Capote,” “Moneyball”).

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 1 (Nov. 21) -- In a familiar move, the final book of a popular film adaptation gets split into two movies. In this half, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) embraces her role as a key figure in the rebellion against the oppressive Panem regime.

The Imitation Game (Nov. 21) -- The story of mathematician Alan Turing, who helped crack the Nazi’s Enigma code during World War II. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.

Horrible Bosses 2 (Nov. 26) -- Insert your own joke here; it’ll probably be funnier than anything in the movie.

Penguins of Madagascar (Nov. 26) -- The “Madagascar” franchise of animated flicks are winding down, so here’s the spinoff starring those adorable penguins who speak and act like G-men.

Wild (Dec. 5) -- After a troubled few years professionally and personally, Reese Witherspoon tries to be taken seriously again in this true story of a feckless woman who makes a 1,100-mile journey on foot after tragedy and finds herself transformed. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (“Dallas Buyers Club”).

Exodus: Gods and Kings (Dec. 12) -- This year already saw controversy over a revisionist take on the story of Noah; are we ready for an action-hero iteration of Moses? Christian Bale plays the Biblical Jewish prophet, now reconfigured by director Ridley Scott as a badass warrior. With Australian Joel Edgerton, incongruently, as Egyptian pharaoh Rhamses.

★ Inherent Vice (Dec. 12) -- Paul Thomas Anderson and Joaquin Phoenix, who made the kooky and occasionally brilliant “The Master,” team up again in this loopy ‘70s tale of a drugged-up private investigator poking into the disappearance of a former girlfriend. With Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon.

★ The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Dec. 17) -- Even I, an ardent lover of all things Tolkien, have grown weary of how far astray director Peter Jackson & Co. have wandered from the gentle children’s book by J.R.R. As humble hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) reaches the conclusion of his epic journey to free a mountain of gold from a dragon, can they stick the landing?

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (Dec. 19) -- Hapless museum guard Ben Stiller travels across the Pond for more adventures at London’s British Museum with friends old -- Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) -- and new -- Sir Lancelot and a pharaoh (Ben Kingsley).

Annie (Dec. 19) -- An African-American Orphan Annie? And Daddy Warbucks? Traditionalists might blanch, but Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis and winner Jamie Foxx seem like a perfect fit for this update.

★ Mr. Turner (Dec. 19) -- Perpetual sidekick Timothy Spall gets a shot at a leading role in this drama from celebrated British auteur Mike Leigh, about the life of painter J.M.W. Turner, an influential early Impressionist.

Into the Woods (Dec. 25) -- The Broadway musical gets an adaptation at the hands of Rob Marshall, who knows a thing or two about that (“Chicago”). It’s an ambitious interweaving of various famous fairy tales, from Little Red Riding Hood to Cinderella. Starring Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick and Johnny Depp.

The Interview (Dec. 25) -- Funnymen Seth Rogen and James Franco already got in trouble with real-life Korean dictator Kim Jong-un because of this fictional story about tabloid TV stars who land an interview with him, then get recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.

★ Big Eyes (Dec. 25) -- Offbeat director Tim Burton is back with a bio of artist Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who tried to claim credit for the ubiquitous midcentury portraits of large-eyed waifs actually created by his wife, Margaret (Amy Adams).

Selma (Dec. 25) -- Is America finally ready for a cinematic portrait of Martin Luther King? David Oyelowo tackles the civil rights icon as one of the leaders of the seminal 1965 drive for voting rights in Alabama.

Paddington (Dec. 25) -- Nicole Kidman plays a taxidermist who wants to stuff a talking, red-hatted bear -- and not with his favorite treat, marmalade -- in this adaptation of the popular children’s books.

★ Unbroken (Dec. 25) -- Angelina Jolie takes another turn behind the camera in directing this amazing true story of Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell), an Olympic runner who suffered a terrible ordeal as a Japanese prisoner of war during WWII.

Maps to the Stars (date TBA) -- Horror auteur David Cronenberg tackles the hypocritical Hollywood scene in this ensemble film about a nobody girl (Mia Wasikowska) who infiltrates the life of a faded movie star (Julianne Moore) and a young driver (Robert Pattinson). With John Cusack.

★ Men, Women & Children (date TBA) -- Hollywood wunderkind Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) takes a look at love and lust in the Internet age, starring Adam Sandler as a porn addict and Ansel Elgort (“The Fault in Our Stars”) as a World of Warcraft nerd.

Reeling Backward: "Theirs Is the Glory" (1946)

I've long been a vocal advocate for "A Bridge Too Far," one of the last of the big-budget World War II spectacles and, in my mind, one of the most underrated. It didn't make much of an impact in the States, but was a big hit overseas.

Screenwriter William Goldman noted in his classic tome about the Hollywood biz, "Adventures in the Screenwriting Trade," that the British are very fond of memorializing their disastrous military adventures, while Americans tend to shy away from them.

So it was a surprise to me to discover "Theirs Is the Glory," a 1946 film shot a year after the actual Battle of Arnhem. While "Bridge" depicted the entirety of Operation Market Garden, a bold and (many feel) rash attempt to punch through into Germany and end the war by Christmas 1944, "Glory" focuses on the battle for the last of the series of bridges the Allies were trying to capture. (The bridge that was one too far.)

What's amazing about the film is that it contains no actors or studio mock-ups of the battle site. The actual men who participated in or witnessed the fighting returned to the town of Arnhem one year after the actual events and recreated them for the cameras. "Glory" also contains extensive footage of the actual battle itself shot by newsmen and military photographers.

As a military strategy, the quest for the Arnhem bridge over the Rhine was too clever by half. Paratroopers from the First British Airborne Division, who by necessity are only lightly equipped, were dropped well behind enemy lines near the town and charged with capturing the bridge. This they did, with great derring-do.

Unfortunately, they were only supposed to have to hold it for two days. The column of Allied tanks got bogged down in the mission of linking up the captured bridges, giving time for the German forces to respond and, as one general memorably orders in "A Bridge Too Far," "flatten Arnhem."

Out of some 10,000 paratroopers dropped for the Arnhem operation, only about 2,000 successfully escaped when their forces withdrew after nine days. The rest were killed or captured -- most of the latter being too severely wounded to retreat.

The concept for the film is novel, but it's a better idea than a movie. It ends up playing out like a bunch of disconnected footage of soldiers running hither and fro, in between obvious showbiz pyrotechnics simulating artillery, and falling down from non-existent bullet wounds.

The soldiers are obviously not actors, and don't do very good jobs of portraying themselves. They tend to speak in stilted sentences in that very blasé British way, in which men in terrible peril seem not at all concerned about it. It gets so silly, it reminded me of that scene in Monty Python's "Life of Brian" in which an English soldier is mildly perturbed by a tiger biting off his leg.

Director Brian Desmond Hurst, a more than competent journeyman, tries his best to lend some narrative momentum to the proceedings, spotlighting a few soldiers and focusing on them. But in the end "Glory" feels like what it is, a pastiche starring non-professionals.

So it becomes more interesting to me to see how this little-known film (at least in the U.S.) affected "A Bridge Too Far." I was struck by the similarities of several sequences, and wondered if Goldman was inspired by them (or if he even saw the film). "Bridge" was based on a book by Cornelius Ryan that was published three decades after the events; perhaps Ryan was influenced by "Glory."

The Liv Ullman character, a local Dutch woman who aids the Allied soldier, seemed to have her look and demeanor modeled after a person in "Glory." She even wears a similar woman's suit and also has a religious bent.

One of the most harrowing sequences in "Bridge" is a night crossing of a river using flimsy little boats, with the soldiers getting cut to pieces by German crossfire. There is a very comparable scene toward the end of "Glory," though here it is the withdrawal from Arnhem rather than part of an earlier advance.

"Bridge" has a nerve-wracking bit where the Brits have been forced back from their supply drop sites, and the Allied planes continue to rain down ammunition and other supplies that they desperately need but can't get to. In both movies, a single soldier scrambles out to try to retrieve one of the massive tubes, but dies for his gallantry.

Johnny Frost is a memorable character in "Bridge" played by Anthony Hopkins, a gallant young officer who leads the forces holding the north side of the Arnhem bridge long past anyone's expectations. There are remarkably similar scenes in each film where Frost and his soldiers, now wounded and without hope, lie together in a bombed-out building essentially awaiting their fate. Frost bravely gives the command for those who are fit to escape back over the river.

In "Bridge," though, this is the opportunity for one of the best bits of dialogue in the movie, where a young soldier tells a story about why he always has an umbrella, even in combat, because he doesn't want to be mistaken for a German and knows "no Jerry would carry one."

It may be Hollywood bullshit, but it's smashingly good B.S.

Even though it's not a very good film, mostly what "Theirs Is the Glory" does for me is reinforce how good "A Bridge Too Far" is, in imposing a cohesive story on a massive series of events and large array of people. Goldman's screenplay is really superb, giving us a dozen or so distinctive characters and letting the action play out through their eyes.

The movies have often -- rightly -- been accused of changing around historical records for their own purposes. But sometimes you have to "showbiz up" the tale to get at the nut of the truth. "Glory" tries for verisimilitude and is dull; "Bridge" spritzes things up and soars.

Video review: "Words and Pictures"

Maybe it’s because of Robin Williams’ recent passing, but “Words and Pictures” reminds me a lot of “Dead Poets Society.” Though instead of featuring one brilliant, kooky and passionate teacher, we get two – and they fall in love.

The setup is that the pair, who both work at an elite prep school, are antagonists whose clash of philosophies and personalities drives their students to creative heights. Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche) is a famous painter now suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. She claims not to care about forming personal relationships with her students or colleagues; for her, it’s all about creating images that sear themselves onto the brain and the soul.

Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) was once a famous writer, now a wastrel drunk who serves as the school’s longstanding jester and provocateur. Despite his self-destructive tendencies, “Mr. Mark” cares like hell about inspiring his pupils, cajoling them through highly unconventional means – he dubs haiku poetry “the first Twitter.”

After hearing Delsanto make disparaging comments about the power of words, Marcus launches an unofficial war on pictures, which carries them through the school year and various developments, including him being threatened with the loss of his job.

Binoche and Owen make for an appealing couple, a pair of gorgeous middle-aged loners who are so wrapped up in their own egos and miseries that they can’t grasp the golden prize right in front of them. Their banter is caustic and even mean-spirited, yet somehow the magnetic pull between them shines through the insults.

Smart, quirky and sexy, “Words and Pictures” reminds us why learning, and teaching, can be so enriching.

Extra features are somewhat scanty in quantity but substantial in quality. Director Fred Schepisi, a veritable Hollywood legend (“Barbarosa,” “Roxanne,” “Six Degrees of Separation”) still cranking out movies in his 70s, provides a feature-length commentary track. There’s also a 19-minute making-of featurette.

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Video review: "Mustang -- The First 50 Years"

By the time I was old enough to start appreciating cars, the original generation of Ford Mustangs -- 1965-73 -- were already considered old cars. The restoration craze hadn't quite taken off yet, so a lot of "pony cars" were simply aging rustbuckets still tooling around, often handed off to second, third or fourth owners.

I specifically remember riding in the back of our station wagon on a long family road trip and watching a 'Stang pass us by. It had a gray primer paint, not a few dents and rust spots, and an exhaust that sounded like a perturbed elephant with a leaky trunk. I was mesmerized.

"One day," I intoned to no one in particular, "I'm going to own one of those."

My parents, used to the wayward ramblings of a precocious 10-year-old, paid little attention beyond a scoff and a harrumph

Now, when I'm cruising around in my Winter Blue 1969 fastback -- a 351C-4V, for those to whom that means something -- I often encounter former Mustang owners who tell me about the cars they used to drive and love. "Why'd you get rid of it?" is the question I always ask. None of them has ever given an answer that really satisfied me or, I think, themselves.

This year Ford is celebrating the 50th birthday of the Mustang, along with the introduction of the sixth-generation 2015 iteration. To celebrate they've produced a video, "Mustang -- The First 50 Years."

This is an enjoyable and illustrative journey through the conception, first production and astonishing evolution of perhaps America's most famous automobile. It includes plenty of history and stock footage of the cars, interviews with the surviving original engineers and Ford executives, and other stuff you'd expect.

But they also pepper it liberally with profiles of individual Mustang owners and their cars, specialty shops like Roush, museums, integral personalities like Lee Ioccoca and Carroll Shelby, and a whole lot of other material that form the integral backstory behind the car.

I appreciated this, since it's easy to tell the story of how an idea became a car, but much harder to say how that car became an icon. That "Mustang -- The First 50 Years" does, with flair and not a little showmanship.

It's also not afraid to take a hard look at some of the dark days of the Mustang, such as the early 1990s when Ford seriously considered canceling the entire line. There is also the second generation from 1974-78 when the car rapidly shrank in horsepower and (many feel) styling charisma in response to the oil crisis.

Originally envisioned as a "secretary's car," the Mustang soon grew larger and beefier, eventually becoming known as one of the kings of the muscle car movement of the late 1960s and early '70s. Though the look of the car has changed much over the years, it nearly always retained the inimitable styling cues -- long hood, short deck, recessed headlights, low roofline, tri-bar tailights -- that instantly marked it as a Mustang.

In an age when so many makes and models of cars are virtually indistinguishable from another, people can still spot a Mustang a long way off.

A total of 2½ hours long, "Mustang -- The First 50 Years" is part tribute, part hagiography and a little bit of gentle myth-busting. What a sweet ride down memory lane.

Review: "The Last of Robin Hood"

More than 20 years ago Kevin Kline had a lovely performance in “Chaplin” as an aging movie star playing out his last hand as a wastrel playboy. He was so good as Douglas Fairbanks that when it came time to cast someone as Errol Flynn in his declining years for “The Last of Robin Hood,” Kline seemed an obvious choice.

He terrifically captures Flynn’s fizzy, rakish persona, which showed little difference between his on-screen swashbuckling and his off-screen adventures. (Flynn chronicled them himself in his posthumous autobiography, “My Wicked, Wicked Ways.”) He spent so much time carousing, drinking and drugging, seducing young girls, sailing on his yacht and otherwise dribbling out his days, it’s hard to believe he found time to make movies.

Done up with Flynn’s signature pencil mustache and cravat-and-evening-jacket outfit, tumbler of booze perpetually in hand, Kevin makes for a pretty spot-on physical impersonation, too.

(Normally I would feel compelled to point out that, at nearly age 67, Kline is rather too old to play Flynn, who died at 50. But Flynn’s hard-charging lifestyle aged him prematurely. And Kline, in several shirtless outings, flaunts a surprisingly athletic figure that helps the age concerns vanish.)

“Robin Hood” takes its title from perhaps Flynn’s most famous role, but focuses on the last two years of life when his star had fallen and he worked only itinerantly. He notices a young starlet, Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning), and in the classic Hollywood seduction method, sends a flunky to fetch her.

Their initial coupling is, to say the least, brief. Not surprising, considering this is a man who was charged with statutory rape in 1942 (and acquitted) and bedded so many ladies they coined the phrase, “In like Flynn.”

But a couple of factors work to sustain the relationship beyond a one-night stand. First is Flynn’s profound self-awareness, including the thought that that his ability to attract women is rapidly waning, and he’d rather not be left alone at the end of the party. The other is a certain Machiavellian aspect to Beverly: the sense that she’s using him as much as he is her.

This is honed and encouraged by her mother, Florence (Susan Sarandon), a showbiz mom who pushes her daughter to sing, dance and act her way to easy street. In Beverly’s case, the talent is not an even match with the ambition, so when Flynn turns up offering to “help” the girl’s career, Florence offers a few perfunctory objections before signing on.

Of course, there’s more revelry than actual opportunity. At one point Errol and Beverly disappear for five months to Africa, and in the finished film she only has one line of dialogue. But the pair seem to be a genuinely affectionate couple, with Florence often tagging along as chaperone.

At some point I should mention that Beverly is only 15 when she and Flynn start dating, and just 17 when he dies. This comes as a shock to him when he finally learns it, though not so much to quit the affair. Obviously, this information puts the entire dynamic of the relationship in a different, disturbing light.

Writing/direction duo Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland tell the story from a flashback perspective, with Florence narrating her side of events to a book author after Flynn has passed and a media firestorm erupts over his teenage damsel. Sarandon paints a picture of a profoundly deluded woman, who gave up her own dreams of stardom to push her kid to unwholesome lengths.

If the movie has a weakness, it’s that Flynn and Florence are vivid, engaging characters and Beverly remains something of a cypher. Fanning does what she can with the material, but the script doesn’t lend her a lot of opportunities to reveal the character’s interior architecture.

But “The Last of Robin Hood” is worthwhile, if for no other reason to see Kline scamp and strut as the iconic bad boy. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” goes the classic Hollywood line -- one that could’ve been written about Errol Flynn.

Video review: "Ida"

What if everything you thought you knew about yourself turned out not to be true? That’s the premise of “Ida,” a spare Polish drama set in 1960.

Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a prim young woman about to take her vows as a nun. But the mother superior insists that Anna, an orphan, visit with her only living family member before committing to a life wearing a habit.

The relative, an aunt named Wanda (Agata Kulesza) who has refused all contact with her, is a bitter drunk who sleeps around prodigiously and wallows in her glory days as a prosecutor for the communist insurgency that now rules the land. She reveals to Anna that she is actually Jewish, her real name is Ida, and her family was murdered by locals as an appeasement to the Nazis.

They spend the next few days riding back to their roots, talking to people and trying to reveal the truth.

Trzebuchowska is a luminous presence, a seemingly meek woman who has deep reserves of boldness and curiosity. During her journey she finds out much about the world, and questions her place in it.

Shot in stark, hauntingly lovely black-and-white by director Pawel Pawlikowski and crew, “Ida” is sad and beautiful cinema.

Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurettes, on the set interviews and a Q&A with Pawlikowski and Sara Freeman.

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Reeling Backward: "Gandhi" (1982)

"Gandhi" may just be the most resented Best Picture Oscar winner of all time. Which is ironic for a biopic about the iconic advocate of peaceful resistance to oppression. The "little brown man in a loincloth" stole hearts and minds all across the globe, and also the Academy Award from the rightful winner.

At least, that was the standard saw at the time. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was (then) the top-grossing movie of all time, beloved by American audiences of all ages, made by the Baby Boomers' wunderkind filmmaker, Steven Spielberg. "Gandhi," meanwhile," was very British, very long (3 hours, 11 minutes), and (to many) felt more like a history lesson than a movie.

I don't think I'd seen the film since it came out 32 years ago. Now having watched it again with the improved perspective that comes with the passage of time, I've analyzed my feelings about both movies and come to the considered conclusion that ... "E.T." really did get hosed.

Which isn't to say that "Gandhi" isn't a good film. Actually, it's very good. The acting is splendid, anchored by a then-unknown Ben Kingsley in the title role. It's beautiful to look at and epic in scope, with director Richard Attenborough's camera sweeping across landscapes and seas of people, and then settling in close for intimate moments with Gandhi puttering around his ashram, dispensing wisdom in between spinnings of looms and milkings of goats.

I don't mind lengthy pictures that fill that time with important and engaging events, but you could easily lop a half-hour out of "Gandhi" without losing much of the narrative momentum. For me, the first half is best, as we watch young lawyer Mohandas Gandhi agitating for the rights of Indian immigrants in South Africa, and later returning to his homeland as a middle-aged man and spending a year or two assimilating himself back into his native culture before taking a stand on independence for India.

It's a period of self-discovery, as Gandhi morphs from a standard-issue activist to quasi-holy man.

The second half becomes a bit repetitive, as Gandhi is now a revered international figure and official Great Man. Now going alternately by the names Mahatma ("great soul"), Bapu ("father") or Gandhiji (a familiarization), he ceases to speak to other people as individuals but makes pronouncements for the masses -- even if there is only one other person in the room.

Largely drawn from the real Gandhi's utterances ("an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"), they nonetheless add to the stilted nature of the film's latter portion.

I was struck by the depiction of Gandhi's reliance on the media to spread his message. It seems he always has an entourage of Western journalists following him around (Martin Sheen and Candice Bergen among them). He cajoles and charms them, extending his friendship -- offers that, at least in the depiction of the movie, reporters are more than happy to turn into an exchange.

There is relatively little depiction of Gandhi's personal life. His four sons are barely seen, and there are essentially two scenes exploring his relationship with his wife, Kasturba (Rohini Hattangadi), whom he married in an arranged ceremony when they were both just 13.

The most notable is when Gandhi first organizes an ashram -- essentially a farming commune -- and insists that everyone share all the work, including cleaning out the latrine. Kasturba objects that this is the work of "untouchables," the lowest caste of Indians relegated to the dregs of society. Gandhi becomes angry and even physically violent with her, but quickly finds his peaceful center.

The primary relationships are with Gandhi's fellow Indian National Congress activists: Pandit Nehru (Roshan Seth), a moderate Hindu who would later become India's first prime minster; Maulana Azad (Virendra Razdan), a younger scholar who doesn't say much; Vallabhbhai Patel (Saeed Jaffrey), an exuberant man of the people; and Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Alyque Padamsee), the peevish and aristocratic chief of India's Muslim faction, who would eventually splinter away from the group and become the founding father of Pakistan.

The best parts of the latter portion of the movie are these men holes up in various rooms, discussing how they will best gain their independence from the British Empire and map out the beginnings of their own country. There's a sense of grandiosity in the moment, but also that these were human beings who could be petty and flawed.

I enjoyed the tight little smile that Kingsley gives Gandhi, who uses it as a sort of imperturbable mask he presented to the world. He employs the same expression both in greeting old friends and in surrendering to the various military or police authorities who come to arrest him from time to time.

Perhaps the most harrowing sequence in the movie is the depiction of the Amritsar massacre, in which British forces fired open a crowd of completely peaceful demonstrators, resulting in more than 1,200 casualties, with something like 370 killed, including women and children.

Edward Fox plays the steely general who ordered his troops to fire for 10 minutes straight into the thickest parts of the crowd as they tried to escape. At the inquest hearing, asked if he would have used machine guns if the armored cars carrying them had been able to fit into the square, he tersely replies, "I think probably, yes."

A great number of actors enjoy small roles in the film, most of them British: Nigel Hawhthorne, Bernard Hill, Richard Griffiths, Trevor Howard, Ian Bannen, John Gielgud, even a very young Daniel Day-Lewis as a South African street punk who threatens Gandhi. John Ratzenberger even turns up as a jeep driver, though I swear his distinctive nasal honk has been dubbed.

"Gandhi" was nominated for 11 Oscars and won eight, including Best Picture, Actor, Director, Original Screenplay (by John Briley) and Original Score.

I don't really begrudge "Gandhi" its Best Picture win all that much. The Academy has a predilection toward certain pedigrees of filmmaking: historical, biographical costume dramas with a sense of profundity and gravitas. (This was part of the reason "12 Years a Slave" was such an easy pick to make earlier this year.) 

"E.T.," for all its wondrous magic, is still seen as a children's picture, and Oscars tend not to go the way of feel-good family pictures (or comedies).

The one Oscar I do think was a serious injustice was Best Costumes, which won over "TRON." Whatever you want to say about the video game adventure, it had a lot of groundbreaking special effects combined with elaborate, vividly original costumes.

For years I had made light of the Gandhi vs. TRON costume donnybrook by saying of the former film, "It was a guy in a white sheet!" Now that I've seen the movie again, I confess that there was much more to the costumes in "Gandhi" than the little man's simple homespun wrap. Gandhi wears natty period suits in the early period, and some of the other notable Indian figures are quite snappy dressers. Nehru, of course, even had a classic mid-century style of suit named after him, faithfully replicated in the film.

Still, I place more value on doing something differently from the way anyone has done it before than executing a familiar thing well. So even upon further reflection, I still think "TRON" got robbed in the costume award.

Actually, this sums up well my feelings about "Gandhi" as a whole. It's overall a pretty marvelous film, but in the end it's a fairly standard "great man" biopic. Perhaps that's why the movie's reputation has waned rather than waxed with the passing of years, and it is mainly remembered only as the film that "E.T." lost to.