REVIEW:
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom was released in South Africa only days before the man died.
There is no mention I can find that Mandela saw the film. And that strikes me as a pity.
Because I think that Mandela, with his great wit, his sense of mischief, his legendary forgiveness, and even his famous vanity, would have enjoyed the film immensely.
Mandela takes us from Madiba’s early days as a street-tough lawyer, through his conversion to freedom fighter and state-branded ‘terrorist’, the twenty-six years of imprisonment, to his eventual international re-emergence as the great reconciliator, and the father of modern South Africa.
It is a sweeping, at times breath-taking story, and Mandela tells it very well indeed. The big moments are here, and enough detail and irreverence to let us know that we are in the hands of competent and confident film-makers.
