Gunga Din (1939)

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Gunga Din (1939) – G. Stevens

Whoa! To watch Gunga Din (1939) in 2022 is to come face-to-face with both unrepentant imperialism and blatant racism – but the film is such a light-hearted adventure, one is tempted to ignore these things. Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. play sargeants in the British army stationed in India. Gunga Din is their Indian water-carrier.  The film splits somewhat evenly between hi-jinks involving the three leads (trying to trick Fairbanks into re-enlisting now that his tour of duty is coming to a close) and action-adventure as they encounter the Thugee cult of Kali-worshippers who aim to kill the Brits. This is a riff on the poem by Rudyard Kipling whose Din sacrifices himself for the regiment by warning them of an ambush with his bugle and dying when he attracts the attention of the baddies.  But the film really is problematic in so many ways.  Although there seem to be actual Indians among the cast, the Thugees do feature a number of actors in black-face (particularly their guru played by Eduardo Ciannelli). Mount Whitney and the Sierra Nevada range stand in for India (not surprisingly). Din himself (also played by a white actor, Sam Jaffe) is infantilised throughout – Cary Grant is particularly patronising toward him, although perhaps unconsciously so.  The film probably couldn’t be made today and the only way to watch it is with one’s critical consciousness engaged. But it’s still so damned fun (indeed Spielberg seems to have borrowed some elements for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).