If you’ve never seen GANDAHAR, you need to. The final feature from René Laloux is a stunning film. So much so that I have the film in several versions and I’ve seen it several dozen times over the years.
The film originally came to the US in redubbed version from Miramax called LIGHTYEARS. Harvey Weinstein had an all star cast redo the voices speaking lines that kind of rethought the tale of a far off civilization that is threatened by robotic invaders. I liked that version though it didn’t do well at the box office. Some time later I finally got to see the film in the intended way and I fell in love all over again.
I’m not going to go into a deep discussion of the film right now, it’s been a while since I saw it and I don’t feel I can discuss it beyond the gee whiz factor.
That’s not a knock. That’s a statement that when the film was originally released in the US the images blew me away. René Laloux had created a magnificent world that hung beautifully together and bled off the screen. I wanted to go back just to look at the images, and I did. I saw this several times in the theater and many more at home.
I should add that the story, is meaty. The tale of our past effecting our future and vice versa is weighty in a way that American science fiction films rarely are. It feels like a great novel where you fall into it and come out the other side a changed person.
GANDAHAR is one of the great science fiction and animated films ever made.Its a film that got the short end of the stick because of being altered originally by the America distributor. It never recovered because for years people thought that was the film, and it wasn’t.
I love this film and you need to see it
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