Gunga Din

Gunga Din (1939)

Runtime: 117 minutes

Directed by: George Stevens

Starring: Cary Grant, Victor McLagen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe, Joan Fontaine

From: RKO

This was a random watch on TCM and I am glad I finally sat down and checked this out after having the desire to see this for a long while. I'll be back tomorrow night but I don't know what I'll be reviewing or even if I'll be reviewing anything; plans for tonight changed due to exhaustion from me but I still have a few things in mind to watch the next few days. Now, onto the Letterboxd review: 

This film was on last night on TCM and as I've been interested in the film for years I figured it was about damn time I checked it out. It was a good move on my part.

I haven't read the poem from Rudyard Kipling but I understand that isn't so important for watching this movie as it's rather loosely based at best. What you get here is an adventure tale where three young soldiers in the British Army in Colonial India during the 19th century (Cary Grant, Victor McLagen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) enjoy having a good time but are good soldiers also. They have to do with the Thugee cult, a real-life group of assassins who terrorized India for a few hundred years but were eradicated by the late 1800's but here they have returned so the troops have to deal with that. Also, one of the three men is going to get married soon and settle down and as they're stereotypical men, the other two think that is awful. Along for the ride is the titular Gunga Din, who is a water-bearer for their regiment.

The movie is just an entertaining old romp. You have entertaining action scenes but the focus is on the three leads and Din and how they interact with each other. What really gets things set in motion is the search for a temple made of gold. It's a rousing adventure and I had heard it was an obvious influence on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; this belief is not in error.

All across the Internet (including this site) I've seen arguments and conflicting claims about how the movie supports imperialism and colonialism. I won't step on that hornet's nest and get into that whole debate. All I'll say is that while it's true “the white men” were trumpeted as the heroes at the end and you have several egregious examples of “brownface” (Din and the main villain of the film), I wasn't too offended by such elements and at least Din (who wishes to be a soldier) is portrayed in a positive light and he does get his moment to shine.

In short, I ignored the stuff that doesn't look so good today and I was able to enjoy the movie and what it presents, which includes a good amount of comedy, a cute elephant and getting to see Grant play not a suave romantic ladies man but rather a boisterous and sometimes silly character.