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Being Indian, I was very excited to see this film due to its detailed and accurate portrayal of the British Raj that is mostly glorified by old British media. While that and the cinematography were splendid (besides the characters of colour actually being played by actors of that race), the plot felt…honestly senseless to me. I didn’t understand Adela’s motives for falsely accusing Aziz as she was against the colonialist prejudice before that. Also there was no explanation for those horrid bruises she had after returning from the cave if she wasn’t harmed.
Speaking of which, what was the matter with the caves? Echoes or claustrophobia can’t make Adela that disturbed that she starts hallucinating being assaulted if that’s what they were going for. Some reviews say that it’s about the “mystery of India”, but I find myself completely lost on that interpretation, or maybe it’s because I can’t see my own country from an outsider lens? 😅
Anyone else feels the same way?
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Keep in mind this is an adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel. Often such adaptations overly rely on viewers' understanding of the source material, which may put some of these ambiguities into a clearer context. Sometimes the tone of the prose adds meaning to the events, for example. While I haven't read the novel I am a big fan of Forster's and suggest you read it if you want some clarity on the plot.
The way I understood it, she was a disturbed individual, and then the accusation was blown out of proportion by the colonial authorities for political reasons.
Probably. But then what happened to make her so disturbed?
I meant she looked disturbed to me before the alleged rape. As for the cause, I can't tell.
I have the exact same issue with the film. It had won great acclaim in its day, but to me the central event the plot rides on - Adela hallucinating that Aziz raped her simply because she was overwhelmed by the echo in the cave - is truly unbelievable, and is out of step with the realistic style of the rest of the film or the characterisation of Adela up to that point. Certainly, if Lean was going for the tension of "DID he actually do it?" he failed miserably.
And, really, knowing Lean's style and seeing how this movie was pacing itself, I was ready for the trial to really flare out into a real civilian uprising against the British, not just a local protest. As was the case with Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter, Lean took a simple drama scenario and gave it the "David Lean epic" treatment and it crushes the story down.
Right? The whole things about hallucinating an assault was just…weird. It sort of ruined the rest of the film for me because I was too confused about that scene. India is a unique place, but even we don’t have caves with echoes that powerful, lol.
I legit thought that Aziz might be guilty at first and actually felt bad for Adela during the protests and all. But when she said that he was didn’t do it I was like- then what was all that for? 🙂↔️
It's been a while since I've seen the movie and even longer since I've read the book, so I only have my scant memories and a cursory glance at the wikipedia page to remind me, so take this all with a grain of salt.
A person can intellectually believe in certain progressive ideas that clash with the prevailing wisdom of a society, while also being subconsciously constrained by the prejudices that society has long imposed in order to keep and preserve it's hierarchal nature. And I think that's very clearly the case with Adele.
While Adele lacked the racial prejudice of most of the people in her society, it appeared to me that she also wanted to be a member of that society in good standing. She was doing what a proper British woman should do by marrying Ronny Heaslop, a man who very clearly had the standard racial prejudices of his rank and class.
I believe (keeping in mind my dim memories) that Adele eventually found herself attracted to the charming Dr. Aziz, which would have been anathema to proper British society. Unable to reconcile the two mutually exclusive desires and dealing with stress of the cave that also caused her friend to freak out, I think she just had a kind of mental break and probably physically collapsed in the cave, or in freaking out and trying to leave the cave as quickly as possible began to run into walls accidentally as she tried to find the exit (though I remember it being ambiguous as to whether someone else attacked her or not)
Unable to deal with the shame of what she feels and what happened, she resorts to easiest thing that Raj society will accept which is that Aziz attacked and sexually assaulted her.
I don't know if that's a good explanation, but that was what my interpretation of the plot was.
I see. I think the explanation of her collapsing in the cave is likely, but it still seemed strange to me that she chose to accuse Aziz of assault rather than saying that she simply fainted or was overwhelmed 😅.
But I do agree with the first part of the explanation 👍
Cyril! Cyril! You have ruined me!!