When I first realized a couple months ago that the Mandela movie would be released before I left South Africa I knew that I must see it while still here. It’s a rare opportunity to watch a movie such as that in the country of its origin and so I spent this past Sunday afternoon at Cavendish in a scarcely occupied movie theater. Quickly I realized how critically I was viewing the movie, making mental notes to fact check certain scenes having just read Long Walk to Freedom two years ago before I first came to South Africa. A decent section of the first part of the book was just skipped over – very little about his childhood besides the traditional ceremony he went through to become a man, and nothing about his work in school to become a lawyer, and his struggles with poverty, for a while only having one threadbare suit that was falling apart at the seams.
When the movie first embarks upon Mandela’s life he is a well-established lawyer who the ANC is attempting to recruit, and he has just met the woman who will become his first wife. Quite honestly the movie is far more romanticized than it is a political epic, and focuses quite a bit on his relationship with his second wife, Winnie Mandela. I found the political intricacies that went on during the fight against apartheid fascinating, so perhaps there was a bit of disappointment on my side about being deprived of that part of his story. And knowing so much of the book, and the history, I felt there was a decent amount of explanation lacking from certain parts of the story, for example – the difference between exile and banning and why exactly Mandela had to go into hiding. I’ve frequently commented on the fact that Mandela did not achieve freedom on his own, and many of the other leaders are not as well praised or well known, outside South Africa that is, like Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, the latter of which I’m pretty sure was only in one scene in the whole movie. The part of the movie that showed Mandela in prison was also not entirely accurate as he seems to just have been sitting around gardening and gyming, while in reality he helped lead hunger strikes and worked to gain to respect of his jailers and better their terrible living conditions while also writing his autobiography and working with his fellow political prisoners on the fight for freedom going on outside the walls of Robben Island. But to be fair, the movie was already 2 ½ hours, there wasn’t too much more they could add.
I found it very admirable that they spent so much time focused on Winnie and her own life leading the fight against apartheid when Mandela was in jail, also showing how their differing opinions about how to fight eventually lead to their separation shortly after Mandela was released. I also liked that they spend a small amount of time at the end of the movie concentrating on the time between 1990 and 1994 – the time between Mandela’s release and the first free election which were still very tumultuous years following the decade of violence that essentially tore South Africa apart in the 80’s, instead of stopping at the moment when Mandela is released. There was also incredibly moving real footage of protests around the world, and of the township violence in the 80’s incorporated into the movie.
The two lead actors were not South African, but I must praise Idris Elba who played Mandela, who was not only a fantastic actor who perfectly captured Mandela’s voice and mannerisms, but also impressively spoke a few lines of isiXhosa in a scene with his mother. And I was happy to see quite a few African names while the credits were rolling; I think most of the other actors besides Mendela and Winnie were locals. The movie was filmed for the most part in South Africa I believe, and the scenery does not disappoint. I also think they got access to Robben Island to film parts of his imprisonment, so it seemed especially realistic. The one major criticism I have is that Winnie Mandela didn’t seem to age over the course of the movie, so by the time Mandela is released she looks more like his daughter than his wife, but that is quite minor.
Watching it in a theater full of South Africans was also an experience, at times people cheered, there was a murmur of recognition when Patrick Lekota was introduced, and a round of applause was elicited at the rolling of the credits. The filmmakers hit many important historical points, and there were tears in my eyes during the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, and when Mandela stood up and told the court the fight for freedom was one he was willing to die for – a speech that impacts me no less now than it did two years ago when I first read it in his autobiography.
All in all a fairly good movie, and decent representation of Mandela’s life – though sugar coated as Hollywood does. The music was also fabulous and thoroughly South African; I’m looking forward to acquiring that album somehow.
As great as it was though, I couldn’t help to constantly be reminded about how little has changed. Soweto for the most part has stood still since the time when Nelson Mandela called it home, and most of his people still are not even able to buy a ticket to see the film, which only proves that South Africa still has a very long way to go.
