Review of Dingaka (1964) by Ryan H — 10 Feb 2012

"How did they die?" "They died.".

Let me start off by saying I'm really not sure what to rate this. On one hand, I was entertained the entire time, especially by how bad the dialogue and situations tended to be. On the other hand, it was pretty racist and awful. The whole point of the film is to show that white men and black Africans live completely different lives, one might not be better than the other, but they are different. For this reason, apartheid works. Let the white man live his way, and let the black man live in his region. It's like paradise for them. They will be happier that way. It's kind of strange to see a film from that perspective. Jamie Uys didn't believe in apartheid because he hated black Africans; he just felt they lived so differently that they needed to be separate. Or perhaps this was his nice way of going about it. However, if this wasn't how he felt, I doubt he would have worked with so many black Africans or would have made The Gods Must Be Crazy. The wife of Ntuku was pretty awful. You can tell he just chose a random woman to play the part. Her running up and screaming at the witch doctor to forgive her husband was really funny, along with seeing her fall to her death. Is that awful to think? Well, must not be too bad considering the majority of people were laughing. I thought it was interesting to see where the film might go for the trial scene. I was hoping there would be some deep explanation about how our innermost feelings affect our actions. But it really just cuts off quickly. I also found it to be pretty funny when the lawyer said they were going to plead not guilty to the attempted murder, then as soon as the guy gets on the stand Ntuku rushes up to kill him. It all makes sense to the story, but the way it comes about is just so funny. So for these reasons, I'm not sure whether to rate it horribly, or give it the entertainment rating. I think I will stick with the entertainment value, because I would definitely watch it again for laughs.