CRY FREEDOM
Impressions of the film by Peter van der Linden
(Not copyrighted, I don't care who publishes this for pleasure or profit)
The latest in a cycle of social-conscience films from director Richard Attenborough, CRY FREEDOM succeeds well in translating and interpreting a foreign land, a foreign culture, and a struggle for redemption in a system which offers little hope for nine-tenths of its population.
Depicting the fight against the repressive Apartheid system in South Africa, CRY FREEDOM slowly informs its audience, just as activist Steve Biko gradually educates liberal white editor Donald Woods to the reality of the system which supports him (Woods) in odious luxury. This is a powerful film of contrasts; of black and white, of luxury and grinding poverty, of brilliant sunshine and dank chambers of torture. Attenborough's direction is evident, but never overwhelming. He lets the characters and events tell their own story. Woods and his wife were consultants to the film, so we are assured of veracity.
Contemporary press accounts of Biko's murder by the South African security forces in 1977, and the subsequent callousness and cover-up made much of his unique qualities as a leader of "black consciousness": his physical strength, his charisma, his maturity. Not all of this came across clearly in Denzel Washington's portrayal of a challenging role. In a sense, this doesn't detract from the film at all. The fight against racism, against repression, against hatred, must take place in all lands and societies. In South Africa in particular, this struggle is much bigger than one man alone.
This is one of the very few films I have seen, in which the audience did not stampede for the exits just as soon as the closing credits began to roll; rather they remained seated, stunned by the enormity of what had just been witnessed. "What permits such wickedness to continue in the twentieth century?" was the unasked question on every lip. The answer of course, lies in our own hearts.
If you view the cinema primarily as a medium of light entertainment, then this film is not for you. If you also appreciate the wider context of education, of politics, of brutal reality, and of artistry in film-making, then you simply should not miss this tour-de-force.
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