CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY
A film review by Martin Rich
Copyright 1995 Martin Rich
Directed byDarrell James Roodt
This story of two men from the South African countryside, one white and one black, and their sons entangled in the same violent events in Johannesburg, is one of the most famous and memorable accounts of apartheid. The novel was written by Alan Paton, a white South African teacher, just after World War II, and filmed by Zoltan Korda in 1951.
So it was perhaps inevitable that, with the demise of apartheid and the opening up of trade with South Africa, one of the first films to be released to an international market would be a new version of CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY. It received its European premiere at the London Film Festival last weekend and will go on release in the US in a week's time.
On the strength of its showing in London, the new film deserves to succeed. It works brilliantly at many levels beyond its portrayal of apartheid. There is the bewilderment of the black priest at the centre of the film, when he first sees how his family live in Johannesburg. There is the subtlety of the issues when a white man is murdered--but the white man apparently embroiled in a racial dispute is actually a liberal, and regarded by friends as a faint curiosity, for his sympathetic treatment of the "natives." There is the contrast between collective violence, and bigotry, and racism, and the acceptance and optimism shown by the individual characters.
The playwright Ronald Harwood started working with CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY, a few years ago when Johannesburg's Market Theatre looked into the possibility of a stage version. This was the idea that evolved into Harwood's screenplay for the new film. This is relevant, partly because it is a reminder that the idea behind the film actually predates the South African elections, partly because occasionally the dialogue can appear formal and understated, in a way that suggests the script's origins for the stage.
Nevertheless the style of dialogue is appropriate to the story, and the leading players--James Earl Jones and Richard Harris--invest their roles with a good deal of humanity which is crucial to the narrative. And the whole film looks and sounds great: visually it makes the most of the beautiful rural surroundings and their contrast with the teeming city.
It isn't always comfortable viewing, but its emotional power is immense. And its reminder, of quite how complex perceptions of good and evil actually are, is as important as ever.
-- Martin Rich City University Business School Frobisher Crescent, Barbican Centre London EC2Y 8HB UK
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