BEFORE: Idris Elba carries over from "Concrete Cowboy", and since I scheduled this film in between two others with Idris in them, it's a bit optional. There are three for four films like this in my chain right now, the "middle films" in sets of three, and I have to drop ONE of them before the end of the year - at this rate, I'll probably just drop the last one, just because I just can't bring myself to decide.
Since I already watched "Cry Freedom" last month, which was about South African activist Steven Biko, it makes sense for me to also watch this one about Nelson Mandela as sort of a follow-up. I'll just drop a film from the November or December line-up, I guess, there are actually five possibilities, where if I drop a film, the chain will just close up around it and continue on - so I really like the odds of me making it to Christmas and still keeping the chain alive.
THE PLOT: A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
AFTER: I'll admit that I fell asleep last night, about a half hour into this movie, but it's not my fault, this is some dry-y-y-y subject matter. Think about it, your main subject is going to spend decades in prison, that just doesn't make for an exciting biopic, most likely. And then it's like somebody went out of their way to make Apartheid boring - say whatever else you want about it, it was racist, unjust, wrong, evil - but it still shouldn't read as boring, not in a movie that needs to hold the audience's attention.
And so I had to force myself back awake and then I had to decide - keep moving forward, or rewind? Since I'd missed about a half-hour (Mandela was in prison when I woke up, and I hadn't seen him put there...) I decided to go back - but then it was 1:30 am and I still had two hours of movie to go. Break out the Diet Mountain Dew...
These are the facts about Mandela's life, he had a promising career as a lawyer, but since he was a lawyer in South Africa, he was probably only going to go so far with that career. The racism was so bad back in the 1940's (?) that some white defendants in court didn't think that a black lawyer even had the right to speak to them. After the South African election of 1948, in which only whites were allowed to vote, Mandela got involved in politics and protests, and this apparently cost him his first marriage. Yes, he was married before Winnie, though most people don't seem to know this - his marriage to Evelyn Mase failed for several reasons, one was his constant absences, another was his adultery, and on top of that, she was a Jehovah's Witness, and that religion requires political neutrality - so yeah, that probably wasn't ever going to work out.
After marrying Winnie Madikizela in 1958, they raised a few children but the nature of Mandela's activism required him to go underground. He was accused of "high treason" against the state in 1956, and though the charges were eventually dropped, the South African government took steps to ban the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress, just to be on the safe side. What was really happening was that government realized that their white minority rule was in jeopardy if the native South Africans, who vastly outnumbered them, managed to get organized, so naturally the government had to make that illegal. Mandela traveled around the country secretly, organizing a new structure for the ANC and helping to plan worker strikes, peaceful protests and also acts of sabotage.
This led to Mandela being arrested and sent to prison in 1962. Mandela represented himself at his trial, but also disrupted the proceedings and made political speeches instead of pleas, and so he was sentenced to five years in prison, and during those five years, further charges were brought against him and his co-conspirators, to the point where they were all eligible for the death penalty, though a judge reduced their sentence to life imprisonment. Mandela spent the next 18 years in prison on Robben Island, where (according to this film, anyway) the prisoners all had access to picks, shovels and heavy rocks, but never took the opportunity to use those items to overpower the guards. Just saying.
Mandela had little contact with the outside world or his family for a long time, but gradually he gained the trust of the various wardens, and was granted more and more privileges, so this film sort of ventures into "Shawshank Redemption" territory for a while - only minus the escape attempts. During this time Winnie Mandela endured abuse from the government herself, she was frequently "banned" or charged with various political crimes, which may or may not have been legit charges, who can say? Meanwhile Nelson had to deal with the death of his mother and his first-born son, and wasn't allowed out to attend either funeral. Once Mandela turned 70, there was international attention drawn to his case, and pressure to release him from prison.
Finally, a change in government, from Botha to De Klerk, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, led to the new president meeting with Mandela and offering him freedom, along with legalizing all of the banned political parties from before. Mandela was offered a position at the new ANC, but he was also able to meet with world leaders from other nations and thus work toward the end of Apartheid. Things were more complicated when he moved back in with his wife Winnie, who had taken up with a new boyfriend, and was also on trial for kidnapping and assault. Though Mandela helped raise money for her defense, she was found guilty in June of 1991 and the couple separated the following year. Two years later, Mandela became the first democratically elected President of South Africa, and that's kind of where the film ends, because it's based on the autobiography he published in 1994, the year he was elected.
That's a fairly common baller move, even for American Presidents - get your autobiography published as soon as you get elected, because up until that point, everything's fine, and you're riding the wave of a big win. Later on, after a few political scandals or an election loss, no publisher's going to want to touch it.
The news of Mandela's death came in 2013, during the London premiere of this film, in fact. Yesterday, the news broke about the death of Queen Elizabeth, and you have to wonder if the producers of "The Crown" are going through the same sort of historical deja vu.
I'm taking tomorrow off to go to that beer festival - I'll be back with the next Idris Elba film on Sunday.
Also starring Naomie Harris (last seen in "Swan Song"), Tony Kgoroge (last seen in "Blood Diamond"), Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva, Simo Mogwaza, Fana Mokoena (last seen in "World War Z"), Thapelo Mokoena, Jamie Bartlett, Deon Lotz, Terry Pheto, Zikhona Sodlaka, S'Thandiwe Kgoroge, Tshallo Sputla Chokwe, Sello Maake Ka-Ncube, James Cuningham, Zenzo Ngqobe, Gys de Villiers, David Butler (last seen in "Serenity" (2019)), Robert Hobbs (last seen in "The Mauritanian"), Andre Jacobs (ditto), Adam Neill (ditto), Carl Beukes (last seen in "Eye in the Sky"), A.J. Van der Merwe, Graham Clarke, André Stolz, Thomas Gumede, Anrich Herbst, Louis van Niekerk, Nomfusi Gotyana, Michelle Scott, Jason Cope, Theo Landey, Sibusiyisile Msuthwana, Unako Poswayo, Paul Harris, Grant Swanby, Atandwa Kani (last seen in "Black Panther"), Siza Pini, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Refilwe Charles, Semuhle Shangasi, Khumbuzile Maphumulo, Mzu Ntantiso, Joshua Mañana, Sinakho Motsepa, Danie van Rensburg, Masiza Mbali, Hamilton Lunga Buthelezi, John Herbert, Sipho Mampuru, with archive footage of Nelson Mandela (last seen in "Pavarotti"), Winnie Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Elizabeth Taylor (last seen in "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It"), Van Johnson (last seen in "The Purple Rose of Cairo") and the voice of Walter Cronkite (last seen in "Summer of Soul").
RATING: 5 out of 10 honorary degrees
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