long walk to freedom: Movie Review
The thing I loved about the movie was the unbiased, realistic way that Mandela’s life was portrayed. The scenes were very accurate and showed the hardships that the South Africans had to go through. Scenes of police brutality, white supremacy and mistreatment towards natives made the audience feel sorry for Mandela and his people, whereas scenes of violence, bombings, and vandalism by the natives made you understand why the whites felt Mandela was a terrorist. Although unbiased, the movie makes the audience feel bad for Mandela in many ways, and although at first we feel as though he will succeed, we are shocked by his arrest. For example, in the beginning of the movie, when Mandela and his group are storming into the “whites only” train station, you feel the movement, the pride and passion the natives have for their country. You see Mandela standing tall and powerful. After his arrest though, it portrays him getting older and weaker, but you still see his followers stand tall behind him as they beg for his release. Hardly ever being able to see his family or friends shows just how strict Mandela’s sentence was and for him to come out of jail 27 years later in a forgiving manner and lead his nation showed how great of a leader he truly was. He is treated poorly in jail and this frustrates his wife, Winnie. When coming out of jail though, instead of joining her, he tells her that she must stop her violent acts at once. He talks to his followers, the opposition, the nation, and his ending speech to conclude the movie, where he raises his hand up high in the air, makes the audience feel as though they have overcome the hard, miserable scenes of him in jail as well. The movie is titled “The Long March to Freedom” and it is clear in the movie just how long and painful Mandela’s march was. One of my favorite scenes from the movie was when Mandela gets back from a long day of labour in jail and washes off the ash and dust off his body. As he does this, he has flashbacks from when he was a young teen, and had just concluded a ceremony into manhood and is washing the paint off his body in a river. Not only did this show Mandela’s sadness, but it showed how much happier he looked when he was a free man. Something he was not for 27 years. Instead taking up his anger on the whites, he stays calm, collected, and becomes one of the greatest leaders to have ever lived. The movie is well made, the scenes are well shot, and I believe that Idris Elba’s role of Mandela was much more accurate than that of Morgan Freeman’s in Invictus. Overall, amazing film.