It took Richard Attenborough decades to bring his dream film of the life of Mahatma Gandhi to the screen. The result is a passionate, if somewhat slow, albeit ultimately satisfying biographical film which won the lion’s share of the year-end awards including eight of the eleven Oscars it was nominated for.

In checking the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as part of my research, I was struck by a question from someone wanting to know if Gandhi was a true story. I find it absolutely shocking that someone who would know how to use a computer, watches movies and knows how to find information about them, wouldn’t know about the father of modern India and his non-violent protests, let alone his assassination. It completely changed my opinion of the film, which I had thought these many years was somewhat over-rated. It’s not over-rated if it brings Gandhi’s story to people who never heard of him. What on Earth are they teaching in schools these days?

Anyway, Ben Kingsley’s Oscar winning performance is both reverent and real, and one can easily understand why he won the Best Actor Oscar over career high performances by screen legends Paul Newman in The Verdict and Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, as well as pretty good ones by two other legends, Jack Lemmon in Missing and Peter O’Toole, who had played a few historical figures of his own, in My Favorite Year.

Although I generally prefer historical epics to popcorn movies, this was one of those years where my favorite film of the year was the popcorn movie – Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, still one of the most charming family films ever made, and one whose sympathies were perfectly in tune with the teachings of Gandhi. The film won four of the nine Oscars it was nominated for, as well as numerous other awards.

Despite the fruits of Attenborough’s passion and Spielberg’s wonderment, I found myself torn between two directors with the same first name for the year’s top director’s prize. Both Sydney Pollack and Sidney Lumet had been nominated for Best Director, the former for Tootsie, the latter for The Verdict, and both their films were nominated for Best Picture. Pollack’s film, in which Hoffman plays a man pretending to be a woman, was easily the year’s best comedy, although it does slow down a bit in the third act. Lumet’s film was a crackling courtroom drama in which Newman takes on both the medical establishment and the Catholic Church. Tootsie was nominated for ten Oscars and won one for Jessica Lange as Best Supporting Actress. The Verdict was nominated for five, but failed to win any.

Among The Verdict’s nominees who went home empty-handed was veteran actor James Mason who played Newman’s opposing counsel in the film.

The fifth nominee was Costa-Gavras’ Missing, which was nominated for four Oscars and won one for Best Adapted Screenplay. Lemmon and Sissy Spacek had been nominated for their portrayals of the father and wife, respectively, of a missing writer in Chile during a right wing military coup.

Other films that Oscar liked this year included Sophie’s Choice; Das Boot; Victor/Victoria; An Officer and a Gentleman; The World According to Garp; Frances; Blade Runner and Poltergeist.

Meryl Streep won her second Oscar for her portrayal of the Polish concentration camp survivor in Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice. The devastating film was nominated for five Oscars, of which Streep’s was the only win.

World War II from a different perspective, that of a German submarine crew, was the subject of Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot, whichreceived six Oscar nominations including two for Petersen for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Julie Andrews returned to the Oscar spotlight for the first time in seventeen years as a Best Actress nominee for husband Blake Edwards’ Victor/Victoria. Andrews was at her sparkling best as a down on her luck female singer who poses as a man who performs as a woman in a female impersonation show. The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won one for Best Song Score. Among its nominations were those for Best Supporting Actor Robert Preston as Andrews’ drag queen boss and mentor and Best Supporting Actress Lesley Ann Warren as a gangster’s moll.

An extremely popular romantic drama, Taylor Hackford’s An Officer and a Gentleman received six Oscar nominations including Best Actress Debra Winger. It won two, for Best Supporting Actor Louis Gossett, Jr. as Richard Gere’s tough drill sergeant, and for Best Song “Up Where We Belong”.

Veteran stage actress Glenn Close made a widely heralded screen debut playing Robin Williams’ feminist mother in George Roy Hill’s film of John Irving’s The World According to Garp. Close and John Lithgow as a transsexual were both nominated for their performances. Lithgow was one of four of this year’s acting nominees who played someone of the opposite sex, although the other three, Hoffman, Andrews and Preston, did so only on stage.

A star from an earlier time, Frances Farmer, was the subject of the harrowing biography, Frances, for which Jessica Lange received a Best Actress nomination and Kim Stanley a Best Supporting Actress nod. Lange’s amazing performance in this film is generally considered to be the reason she won the Supporting Actress Oscar for Toostie over Garp’s Glenn Close and her Tootise co-star, Teri Garr, who had also been nominated.

Ridley Scott’s ground-breaking science fiction film, Blade Runner, received two nominations for Best Art Direction and Visual Effects. Tobe Hooper’s equally ground-breaking horror film, Poltergeist received three for Best Score; Visual Effects and Sound Effects Editing.

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S.

Among this week’s new DVD releases are Harrry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 1 and the Blue-ray debut of The Incredibles, as well as the DVD only release of Tracy & Hepburn: The Definitive Collection. Include are all nine films made by the acting giants as a team, seven of which have been previously released. New to the collection, and sold separately, are Keeper of the Flame and Sea of Grass.