Truly Dreadful Film

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Ava Gardner plays the role of a mixed race Anglo-Indian woman coming to terms with the departing Brits. It's 1947, time to pack the bags and go home. But where is her home? During the occupation of India, many British expats 'went native' and developed relationships with Indians. The resulting issues were half-British - chi-chi, a step above the native wogs but hardly the right (read white) stuff. For broadly the opposite reasons, full-blood Indians despised 'em too.Stewart Grainger plays the British army officer charged with the task of maintaining order at an increasingly rebellious outpost called Bhowani Junction. The Indians are employing Ghandi's 'passive resistance' to foul things up and expedite their colonists' departure. A romance develops between they two.This is an inevitably simplistic Hollywood take on British colonial rule. But it's nicely filmed in black and white with some very authentic locations.When Indians lie on the railway tracks in an attempt to blockade the movement of trains, Grainger's army officer has a neat solution. He threatens them with the contents of the station latrines. They call his bluff so he lest 'em have it. At least it gets the trains running on time.It's depicted as outrageous behaviour in the movie, but compared to what these people did to each other after the Brits were gone it was hardly worse than pissing in your tea. How many people were murdered during partition - was it a million? This is a very decent drama, but the stand-out performance is unquestionably Ava Gardner's who - let's face it - never played a bummer in her life.

I watched this expecting the normal 50's play on British India and found a morality tale. The approach was a pleasant surprise. The first half dealt with the prejudice toward half Indian and English by both sides. Any comment applied to "wogs" etc could have been the N word in America. This was made in 1956!!! Of course the 2ed half became the Granger-Gardner love story and get the bad guy but still fun. Ava was sexy as hell and Stewart was dashing. HIP HIP HORAY! Their children would be "1/4 wog". The ending was a bit much but still fun.This movie belongs on DVD and soon. I highly recommend this as a fun movie with A blast at hate.

The setting for Bhowani Junction is India during the last days of the British Raj. The town of Bhowani is a railroad junction and both the Congress Party and the Communist Party are doing all kinds of sabotage to help the British quickly get out of India. Of course each is doing it for their own reasons.Two people who may have given the outstanding performances of their careers are Ava Gardner and Bill Travers. Both play bi-racial people who don't fit in either society. But they react differently. Gardner is going through a whole lot of angst, really seeing both the British and Indian point of view. How she missed an Oscar nomination here is beyond me.Bill Travers is the railroad station manager and his whole life is his job. He focuses narrowly on that and his tunnel vision leaves him oblivious to the momentous changes around him. Except for the fact that when the British leave he might lose that little piece of authority where he is, that which gives him stature in the Raj society. The issues are complex, but in the hands of a great director like George Cukor the characters and their struggles become real and even more important, the audience becomes interested.Stewart Granger who was the British Colonel in charge of the whole mess in Bhowani, said that Bhowani Junction was one of the few films he was really proud to be associated with. He has a struggle to, he really does see the Indians as human beings and not just "wogs." He's quite knowledgeable about their customs and at one point utilizes that knowledge to unjam that railroad terminal. Bhowani Junction is an intelligent and literate drama and a superb piece of film making.

This is a beautifully shot, and well acted movie. It is almost faithful to the book and a good portrait of the chaos at the end of the second world war. Ava Gardner is luminous as always, and Stewart Granger a good foil for her.