Review of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) by Siobhain M — 10 Apr 2014

Watching this flick, I kept saying, "Why was this not nominated for more Oscars? I honestly think that the performances by Idris Elba (Thor: The Dark World) and Naomi Harris (Skyfall) are exactly what the Academy looks for.

That doesn't mean that I think they should have garnered nominations, but that they played right into the Academy's white guilt, biographical, and a bit crazy prerequisites. Elba really tries to get into Mandela, and has the chops to do so, but he's just way too big.

Great actor, but just didn't fit the body type. Harris is equally as talented, and she pulls off crazy quite well. The fact that this movie pretty much coincided with Mandela's death kind of shocked me that it didn't land on the Best Picture list.

However, one can't stress enough that while this movie and others continue to prop up Mandela, that despite the good things he did for South Africa, he was not the upright man that everyone makes him out to be.

This movie doesn't entirely shy away from his less than stellar deeds, but it justifies them. That's not to say that the government that opposed his movement was squeaky clean, but it played right into the white guy bad, black guy good regardless stereotype that permeates movies like this.

Honestly, one might glean from this film that domestic terrorism is okay if the victims are white. Oh, and this movie doesn't cover the other aspects of Mandela's life that the history-rewriters like to gloss over - i.

E. communist sympathizer, etc. It's a well-made movie, but the subject was overly glorified.