Review of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) by Christopher W — 25 Dec 2013

A serviceable film. It deserves some credit for effort but it has some obvious flaws. The main focus of the film is the story of Nelson and Winnie which is perfectly valid but it misses a lot of key points and the leads are not perfect for their roles.

A South African will always be aware that Idris Elba and Naomie Harris are not South African and that their accents and body language are not authentic - this won't bother American or European audiences but it detracted from my appreciation of the movie because I could not become immersed in the story.

I thought the Afrikaners in the movie (apart from Jamie Bartlett) were quite well cast and the scenes with Kobie Coetzee and FW de Klerk felt reasonably authentic. I also think the movie lost something by aiming for a 12A rating - the level of oppression and violence was a bit sanitised although I found the love scenes a bit jarring (which is not a criticism just a personal observation) , Mandela is a such a revered figure that the thought of him ripping a woman's clothes off in lust seems almost blasphemous.

I also felt that the movie was slightly off the mark when portraying Mandela's great wisdom and presence, Elba does a good job but he's never quite up to the task - that said its a very challenging role and he is not bad.