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From: channic@uiucdcsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Passage to India
Message-ID: <10000120@uiucdcsb.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 20:21:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.10000120
Posted: Wed Feb 20 20:21:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Feb-85 10:11:56 EST
References: <84@spar.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:spar:-8400:uiucdcsb:10000120:000:2392
Nf-From: uiucdcsb!channic    Feb 20 19:21:00 1985


(I wanted to mail this but couldn't get mail to author, so.._

Here Here! (Hear hear?)

I am all for the movies that convey the existence of higher powers than
man, and the intervention of those powers in human lives.
This is why I loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and despised Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom, and also why I found 2010 most entertaining
despite the fact that it was scientifically inferior to 2001.
I found Passage to India especially interesting because India is really
that kind of place.  I don't remember the exact line from the movie,
but some character said something like, "India has a way of bringing
one face to face with one's self".  Having been to India, I can 
testify to this.  I think anyone who goes to see the real India,
can't help but feel a sense of insignificance in the presence of
a greater reality, which can be disconcerting to a Western
looking-out-for-number-one ego.  If the Westerner is sufficiently
aware of his place in the universe (i.e. that it does not revolve
around him), however, his experience of India can be one of ecstasy
in the realization that the higher powers are on his side and maintain
his existence despite his shortcomings.  Unfortunately, the two ladies
were just sensitive enough to feel the effect and not the blessings,
and so there was a "slight disturbance in the force". Of course,
the main result was a victory and increased unity for the Indian people,
which was clearly organized by some entity with a greater perspective
than the characters in the story.

On a less cosmic level, I thought Aziz was an example of a class human
being.  We in the West, and especially the British back in those days,
think ourselves to be so more civilized than India, China and other
Asian nations.  Aziz put all these beliefs to shame.  Despite the
arrogance of the British, to Aziz they were still guests in his home.
The man never thought of himself and was always doing whatever he
could to help out the next guy.  That is civilized.  The capability
to overrun a country with military strength is not.  Of course, the
British did do wonderful things in India, creating roads and schools, etc.
But Passage to India suggests to me that the British were just tools
that were always in the hands of destiny and simply discarded when
they had served their purpose.

Tom Channic  channic@uiucdcs  ||  ihnp4!pur-ee!uiucdcs!channic