Review of Cry Freedom (1987) by Michael K — 31 Dec 2007

Film about the treatment of black citizens by the South African government under appartheid. Using Steve Biko as its civil rights protagonist, it's less biopic and more an issue film using Biko's friendship with newspaper Donald Woods to improve political consciousness in the watching audience.

I thought that although this was hampered, at times, by the usual dodgy biopic acting and a final third that turns into standard Hollywood thriller, this was a very watchable film. The score, when it concentrated on African music fitted perfectly and gave the film a greater feeling of life than even the excellent cinematography could.

I've since read that there was a fair bit of criticism aimed at the film because it took Woods' story as its foundation and Biko's words don't take centre stage as much as they could. It's a fair point, however I also think that given that the issue of appartheid needed bringing to the attention of the world, Woods acts as the viewer, experiencing for us first hand, the horrors of a regime that killed its own people for fighting for equality, in the days before anyone could blame Diversity Managers for the rise of racism.

It's not as good as Gandhi although there are some scenes that generate the same awe and stop the lesser acting and cliches from letting this be an average film.