Product Details

• Actors: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sam Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli
• Directors: George Stevens
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: December 7, 2004
• Run Time: 117 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00049QQJQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,352 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Gunga Din" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This big, boisterous adventure is more inspired by than based on Rudyard Kipling's famous poem. Legendary screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur have fashioned a rousing Hollywood movie full of high adventure, knockabout comedy, and old-fashioned male bonding. And old-fashioned it is: the trio of British officers and best friends who form the core of the film are a 19th-century three musketeers in India, threatened by the interventions of a woman who means to marry the dashing Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Blustery commander MacChesney (Victor McLaglen) schemes to keep Ballantine in the army while his second in command, the treasure-hunting Cutter (Cary Grant in a hopelessly mugging comic performance), continues searching for his elusive mother lode, but all their plans are thrown into chaos when the rise of the bloodthirsty Thugs threaten Britannia's soldiers. Sam Jaffe takes up the rear guard in turban, loin, and full-body make-up as the titular Gunga Din, the loyal water carrier who dreams of becoming a soldier. Bombastically chauvinist and naively imperialist, the film is bound to rub some people wrong, but Stevens creates a thrilling spectacle in the grand Hollywood mold, a handsome, exciting classic comic adventure that helped make 1939 Hollywood's grandest year. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Victor McLaglen, Sam Jaffe. A classic adaptation, inspired by Rudyard Kipling's famous poem, which pits three British soldiers who are best friends and a water carrier to fight without the aid of the rest of the British army against a seemingly insurmountable foe, the Thuggees of 19th-century India. 1939/b&w/117 min/NR/fullscreen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

131 of 135 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Template April 27, 2003

By Alan Dean Foster

Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase

Possibly the best pure action film ever made and certainly the inspiration for many that have followed. Inspired by, rather than based on, a poem by Rudyard Kipling (who briefly appears as a character in the uncut version of the film in the guise of a journalist traveling with the British army) this tale of adventure, comedy, and action in 19th-century India under the British Raj has it all. Superb b&w cinematography (nominated for an Academy Award in Hollywood's greatest year). Perfect casting, with Cary "Archie" Grant as the cockney Sgt. Cutter, Victor McLaghlen as gruff Master Sgt. MacChesney, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as the dashing Sgt. Ballantine, Sam Jaffee (in full body makeup) as the humble water carrier Gunga Din, and the scene-stealing Eduardo Cianelli as a ferociously intelligent villain who is far more frightening than any '30's movie monster.

The setting, outside the small town of Lone Pine, in California's eastern Sierras, beautifully mirrors that of northwestern India. Filmed in 100 degree heat, the picture's sets and backgrounds have a look of sere authenticity rarely achieved by location filming in the '30's. The superb score borders on the operatic, with leitmotifs for characters as well as scenes.

I vividly remember thinking as a child, when I first saw a grainy print on our b&w tv, that this was the first time I had seen a non-white person in a film who was obviously smarter than the Caucasian heroes. Yes, Cianelli's guru is a fanatic at the head of a cult of ritual murderers, but his discourse on what makes a good officer ("Great generals, gentlemen, are not made of jeweled swords and mustache wax. They are made of what is here [touches hand to head] and here [touches hand to heart]!") has stayed with me ever since. Not to mention, before throwing himself into the cobra pit so that his soldiers will move against the British, that "India is my country, and I can die for my country as well as you for yours".

Of course, there is also his rousing speech in the temple to his devotees to "Kill for the love of Kali, kill as you yourselves would be killed, kill for the love of killing...kill, kill, kill!" that carries rather chilling relevance to all too many fanatical groups today (though not worshippers of poor slandered Kali, whose temple in Kolkata I have visited). And it's the bravery of a mistreated Hindu, Gunga Din, who saves the day, and British behinds.

This is a film that functions on many levels and inspired far more than the forgettable remake (SOLDIERS THREE). Its lack of availability on DVD in a fully restored version, together with the accompanying George Stevens, Jr. documentary footage on its making (including color film shot on the location), makes it the number one omission in the current DVD catalog.

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Gunga Din January 6, 2008

By James Mcfarland

Format:DVD

This copy has one major fault: Too strongly edited. The opening scene with the character of Rudyard Kipling riding in a railway coach has been entirely omitted. The scene with the British Elephant squads setting up their artillery has been severely edited, and one misses the awesomeness of the pachyderms executing the drill of unloading the pieces as no other artillery unit in the world could do. And for what? So mediocre trailers and other trivia could be included on the DVD? I paid 11 cents at a Saturday matinee to see the original, and those scenes have been with me all these years. Would be pleased to have you offer an edition with the scenes restored.

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best action movie ever March 13, 2005

By Steven Hellerstedt

Format:DVD

The British Army battles a Thuggee uprising in colonial India.

There are action movies, there are good action movies, and there is George Stevens' 1939 GUNGA DIN, the greatest action movie ever filmed. It has it all, as the director's son George Stevens, Jr. reminds us in the recent `making of' feature bundled with this dvd - humor, action and humanity. Not - alas - romance (poor Joan Fontaine.) A disappointing, albeit beautiful, actress up to that point, Fontaine is nothing much than a plot device used to lure one of the film's soldiers three - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - away from the other two, Victor McLaglen and Cary Grant.

In that same feature are some circa 1985 interview clips of Fairbanks, who tells us that while filming some of the actors wondered if GUNGA DIN was dosed a little too liberally with humor. Indeed, few action movies this side of Indiana Jones are quite so persistently jaunty, few lean so close to slapstick. Grant has the lead comic role, but McLaglen and Fairbanks have their share of gags as well. It's not a comedy, but the humor adds essential air to the proceedings.

The bad guys in GUNGA DIN are malevolent, grim, Kali (the Goddess of Destruction) worshiping Thuggees. The Thuggees are a deadly threat who aren't allowed a slapstick moment. If GUNGA DIN'S humor adds a necessary lightness, the Thuggee menace adds essential weight. These guys are creepy, evil incarnate, and it's in the battles with them - especially the breathtaking grand battle at the end - that the movie generates its thrills.

We have only to account for that rarest of action movie qualities George Jr. mentioned - humanity. Of course, it's embodied in the title character Gunga Din, played by the then relatively unknown Sam Jaffe. Jaffe is pitch-perfect in the role of the beastie, or water-carrier, who dreams of becoming a soldier. Film historian Rudy Behlmer tells us on the commentary track that Jaffe modeled his performance on Sabu, the Indian actor who was the first choice but unavailable for the role. Jaffe, we're told, approached the role as if he were Sabu - a derivative approach who's only virtue is that it works. Jaffe's Din IS humanity - childlike, questing, capable of deeds that make hardened soldiers (and most of the audience, I wager), weep. Din's simple wish is to be accepted, and it is Din who is the soul of this movie.

GUNGA DIN is the best action movie ever, bar none. Strongest recommendation for this essential movie.