Mandela: An epic effort

British actor, Idris Elba, on whose shoulder the entire production rests, does a superb job as Mandela. His towering presence anchors the production and he gets the staccato vocal delivery and vowel sounds just right although, he is blessed with a much fuller resonance than the real icon. Elba manages to maintain the Mandela gait and as the character grows older and greyer, and more make-up is applied to his face, he begins to bear a closer resemblance to the former statesman.

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is a mammoth film. Based on Mandela’s best-selling autobiography, with a screenplay by William Nicholson, it bravely attempts to chronicle the life of Mandela right up to the moment he ascends to the Presidency.

But even with a running time of 146 minutes, it doesn’t do full justice to the many facets of the story. It moves swiftly through Mandela’s early years, his strained relationship with his first wife Evelyn (Terry Pheto), his law work and his involvement with the ANC as the political situation in South Africa grows unbearable for black people under National Party rule.

A scene from the movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

It hops from one historic incident to the next, including Sharpeville and the Soweto Uprising, and is awkwardly episodic. It fails to fully develop the characters involved and explore the incidents in depth, resulting in the production becoming somewhat uninvolving.

Characters move in and out of the story. In one instance during Mandela’s Robben Island incarceration, he befriends a warden, James Gregory (Jamie Bartlett) an individual who later became a significant entity in Mandela’s life, but this aspect is undeveloped. The ordeal on Robben Island is well pitched, but it loses resonance in the sketchy way it deals with his relationship with struggle veterans Walter Sisulu (Tony Kgoroge) and Ahmed Kathrada (Riaad Moosa).

There are touching moments, too, once when Winnie (Harris) visits and another when Mandela receives the tragic news of his son’s death in a motor accident and the authorities refuse to allow him to attend the funeral.

This production shines in many areas. The overall acting, with many South African players in key roles, is commanding. Naomi Harris, in the pivotal role of Winnie, gives a highly intelligent reading. Her textured interpretation effectively spans the period from the sweet young thing in love, whom we meet in the beginning, to the firebrand politician who became such a thorn in the government’s side. Winnie’s cruel incarceration and inhumane treatment by the authorities once again rammed home the political shenanigans of an iniquitous regime and its attempts to get back at Mandela, cut off from the world and serving time in prison.

Chadwick has skilfully captured the era – the look of the buildings, the cars, their number plates, their licence disks and the clothing – with sharply etched images. His recreation of Mandela’s trial in Pretoria, as well as his famous words from the dock, are effectively telegraphed. The crowd scenes, especially during the bus strike, are well orchestrated and you get the real sense of rising tension among the people.

Much research has obviously gone into this striking production, but there appear to be discrepancies about the dates of some of the historical events that occurred in the Sixties.

Still, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a living tributeto a beloved South African statesman and is well worth seeing.