The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)
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The Lives of a Bengal Lancer Movie Review
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 adventure drama film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone. It’s one hugely problematic movie.
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“We have ways to make men talk“
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It is the story of a group of British cavalrymen and high-ranking officers desperately trying to defend their stronghold and headquarters at Bengal against the rebellious natives during the days of the British Raj. Needless to say, it follows that terrible part of history where Britain wanted to conquer India and the problem here is how that is positively portrayed.
I know that movies need to be evaluated with context, but I personally cannot do that to the fullest extent if the movie is this detestable. I can only somewhat take into account when giving it a grade, but overall I find it truly horrific how the natives are portrayed as villainous cartoony buffoons and how the British are these brave, great men. It was horrible to witness.
The movie isn’t without its objective strengths though and the acting is certainly one of them. Everyone did a good job and this ensemble is quite strong, but Franchot Tone is particularly strong and memorable whereas Gary Cooper himself is reliably good too.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is also admittedly very well made across the board with the pacing, direction and technical aspects being solid, if not great. The dialogue is particularly good throughout and some of the character interactions are fine too. Yes, it would have been a swell movie had it not been for its horrendous racial politics and had the setting been different.
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It was nominated for seven Academy Awards which is just too much. The Best Picture nod is absolutely ludicrous and it might be the weakest nominee of this year’s entire slate. The other technical noms are more deserved, but still not a good sight. It goes to show how clueless and politically incorrect the Academy was during this period and thankfully the movie is pretty much forgotten nowadays.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is technically well made, it has good dialogue and it is very well acted, but I could only put it into context to a degree as the movie is absolutely appalling in its racial politics, and witnessing the villainous portrayal of Indians and the noble portrayal of brave Englishmen was for me simply too detestable. Unsurprisingly, the Nazis loved this film.
