Gunga Din was nominated for an Oscar® in 1940 in one category:
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White: Joseph H. August

Gunga Din was named to the National Film Registry in 1999.

Critic Reviews: GUNGA DIN

"All movies ...should be like the first twenty-five and the last thirty minutes of Gunga Din, which are the sheer poetry of cinematic motion. Not that the production as a whole leaves anything to be desired in lavishness and panoramic sweep. The charge of the Sepoy Lancers, for example, in the concluding battle sequence, is the most spectacular bit of cinema since the Warner Brothers and Tennyson stormed the heights of Balaklava. In fact the movies at their best really appear to have more in common with the poets than with plain, straightforward, rationally documented prose...Even at those points where the script seems to lose its sense of direction, George Stevens always admirably retains his own. At its best, it is an orchestration, taut with suspense and enriched in the fighting scenes with beautifully timed, almost epigrammatic bits of 'business' and a swinging gusto which makes of every roundhouse blow a thing of beauty. Mr. Fairbanks leaps from roof to roof like his esteemed sire; Mr. McLaglen in his uniform struts intemperately; Cary Grant clowns even beneath the lash of the cult of Thugs, even with a bayonet wound in his vitals...And the hills, meanwhile, swarm with costume extras, resound with the boom of obsolete artillery, dance together in a rich confusion of tartans, turbans and the monotonous, martial tunes of the bagpipes. Victoria Imperatrix! Involuntarily, we feel the tears start." - The New York Times, January 27, 1939.

"[Rudyard Kipling's] contribution to RKO-Radio's Gunga Din is a title, a character, and the concluding lines of the Barrack Room Ballad that commemorates the heroic death of an Indian water carrier. Uncredited contributors are virtually all the previous films that have romantically chronicled British heroics in India. ...Capably acted, and given the most elaborate production in RKO-Radio's history, the blood-and-blundering heroics of Gunga Din make for sweeping, spectacular melodrama. The preposterous story, smartly directed by George Stevens, has the further advantage of starting off with a skirmish exciting enough to serve as a climax for less ambitious juvenilia and proceeds fast and spuriously to combat on a mammoth scale. And between climaxes, as the regimental Rover Boys battle with every weapon known to warfare and brawling in the '90s, romance - contributed by Joan Fontaine - scarcely rears its pretty head to interrupt the carnage." - Newsweek, February 6, 1939.

"As an individual product of the cinema industry, there is practically nothing to be said against Gunga Din. First-class entertainment, it will neither corrupt the morals of minors nor affront the intelligence of their seniors. But unfortunately, Gunga Din is not an isolated example of the cinema industry's majestic mass product. It is a symbol of Hollywood's current trend. As such it is as deplorable as it is enlightening...Hollywood...even when it was not deliberately repeating itself, repeated itself unconsciously. Gunga Din is an example of this unconscious repetition. Whatever there is to be said about the minor matter of barrack-room life in India has been more than sufficiently said by the cinema many times, most recently in Lives of a Bengal Lancer [1935], The Charge of the Light Brigade [1936] and Drums [1938]. Moving pictures are a vigorous entertainment medium. There has probably never been a moment in the world's history when more exciting things were going on than in 1939. That Hollywood can supply no better salute to 1939 than a $2,000,000 rehash, however expert, of Rudyard Kipling and brown Indians in bed sheets, is a sad reflection on its state of mind." - Time, February 6, 1939.

"One of the most enjoyable nonsense-adventure movies of all time - full of slapstick and heroism and high spirits. [It] is a unique pastiche - exhilarating in an unself-consciously happy, silly way. The stars are a rousing trio: Cary Grant, having the time of his life as a clowning roughneck; the dapper, gentlemanly Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; and the eternal vulgarian, Victor McLaglen. Who has forgotten Eduardo Ciannelli in dark makeup as some sort of mad high priest, or Sam Jaffe as Gunga Din, the essence, the soul of loyalty? Who remembers Joan Fontaine as the pallid and proper heroine?" - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies.

"Of course one winces a little at the smug colonialist attitudes, and at the patronizing 'You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din' which commemorates the humble native water-bearer's sacrifice after he dies blowing a bugle to save the Raj from falling to an ambush. All the same this is a pretty spiffing adventure yarn, with some classically staged fights, terrific performances, and not too much stiff upper lip as Kipling's soldiers three go about their rowdy, non-commissioned, and sometimes disreputable capers. What, one wonders, did William Faulkner contribute, uncredited, to the bulldozing Hecht/ MacArthur script?" - Tom Milne, Time Out Film Guide.

"Rousing period actioner with comedy asides, one of the most entertaining of its kind ever made." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

"Bravura is the exact word for the performances, and Stevens' composition and cutting of the fight sequences is particularly stunning." - NFT.

"...a swiftly-paced, exciting yarn...George Stevens employs superb change of pace, going from action to character closeups and then tossing in a romantic touch...As Gunga Din, native water carrier, Sam Jaffe contributes possibly his best screen portrayal since Lost Horizon." - Variety Movie Guide.

Compiled by John M. Miller