Review of Cry Freedom (1987) by Ben D — 29 Sep 2007

Exists in the shadow of Gandhi but isn't quite as inferior as a lot of people say. Features my favourite Denzel Washington performance (he plays murdered activist Stephen Biko with intelligence and melancholy, but with a reassuring twinkle in his eye), and Kevin Kline is decent though I still think he's better suited to comic roles like in A Fish Called Wanda.

The courtroom scene in Gandhi is my favourite, and in Cry Freedom it is again one of the older generation of English actors who delivers some of the most important lines: this time John Thaw, whose contribution offers a depressing insight into the roots of South Africa's ethnic tension.

All in all Cry Freedom is a very moving portrait of someone who might have achieved what Gandhi did had his life not been taken so prematurely. The film was never going to be an epic, but it's nonetheless powerful and positive in it's message.