“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”—a sprawling, old-fashioned
biopic—falls into the common biopic trap: it tries to tell too much. It
dramatizes the life of famous South African Nelson Mandela, viewed by some as a
terrorist and others as a hero, and his long, oh so long, grueling journey to
freedom and eventually presidency after being imprisoned for 27 years.
An amazing story for sure, but one that can’t be told in a
single two and a half hour movie (yes, I know what I said). Directed by Justin
Chadwick from a screenplay by William Nicholson (based on Mandela’s own
autobiography) “Mandela” is brimming with South African pride, pertaining both
to the nation’s politics and culture, and anyone can see the picture is made
with only the best of intentions, but good intentions can only go so far.
The movie begins in 1942 and finds a young, ambitious
Mandela (Idris Elba) as a small time Johannesburg lawyer doing what he can to
bring justice to mistreated Afrikaners. After continual disappointments and clashes
with ignorant white South Africans he decides to join equality protests that
are just starting to emerge. From here, Chadwick moves at a brisk pace through
each period of Mandela’s life; from the first protests (and admittedly many
many more follow), to the time when Mandela meets his future wife Winnie (Naomi
Harris), a social worker ready for a change as well, to his twenty seven year
imprisonment and subsequent release and inauguration as the first
democratically elected president.
Though, what begins as brisk eventually turns into slogging
as Chadwick and Co. desperately try to shove everything they possibly can into
one movie. As I said before it is an amazing story and every so often there are
good moments, especially during Mandela’s imprisonment period and the
juxtaposition of Winnie and her own struggles on the outside. However, Chadwick
doesn’t let these moments sink in long enough because he has to rush to the
next scene or time period. The movie, on a whole, feels like a flimsy made for
TV version of the Mandela story.
At this point in time Nelson Mandela has become such a major
historical figure that it would have been far better if Chadwick and Nicholson
had taken the same approach Steven Spielberg did with his Abraham Lincoln
biopic (“Lincoln”) last year; instead of attempting to tell Mandela’s whole
story, they should have devoted their attention and energy on one period of his
life. There’s plenty of material there, in fact there are at least two or three
great or near great Mandela movies trapped in this lackluster one.
The movie never manages to find a central focus. There are
abrupt shifts in tone; from Mandela having a chummy conversation with his
political mates, to an intense stand off between cops and protesters and then
to an extremely sappy moment between Mandela and Winnie. One minute you’re
angry, the next you’re happy. Chadwick shows us the same scenes over and over and over again; how many scenes of
passionate protests and speeches featuring people pumping their firsts in the
air can one endure in a movie before they become repetitive and empty?
Elba proves yet again to be a talented actor capable of
carrying a movie. He’s no doubt the best part of the film but even he isn’t
given that much to do. For the most part Mandela remains perched on a high
pedestal, when he should have been brought down to our level Like Abraham
Lincoln was in “Lincoln.” We feel distant from him. It’s even worse with
Winnie; again Harris (two extremely talented British actors are used in the movie)
does what she can with the material but she simply isn’t given a chance to grow
and instead is shown doing the same actions again and again (taking part and
shaking her fist during those many speeches and protests for example).
Besides narrowing the scope and focus I’m not sure how
“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” could have been done. I get it, the movie wants
to show Mandela’s extraordinary journey (hence the subtitle) but two and a half
hours just isn’t enough time to deliver an effective and substantial portrait
of someone’s life. Perhaps the filmmakers could have gone the TV mini series
route, that way they could have focused and spent the appropriate amount of
time on each period in his life. Whatever they could have done, Mandela was a
great historical and political figure who deserves much better than this movie.
C-
No comments:
Post a Comment