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Cry Freedom (1987)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 12/14

CryF
12/14: Cry Freedom is one of these schmaltzy "oh, it's so important that you must watch" films when it's in fact an overlong, substanceless bore just like Gandhi.

Having suffered from the running time of two hours and thirty-seven minutes, I can't believe I survived the whole thing. At the end, I fast-forwarded through the long list of foreign names of individuals who died under mysterious circumstances because I didn't care anymore.

Denzel Washington is okay as Steve Biko, but his character dies about one hour into the film. Then, Kevin Kline, who's out of his element, takes over as his character "dramatically" escapes from the jungles of South Africa. Only if it can be believable with any iota of tension.

Although apartheid is obviously a big no-no, I doubt that most of the folks who lived through it had ever thought about the aftermath when South Africa was finally set free in 1994. Take the American Revolution. The colonists founded a democratic country after fighting for independence. Yet South Africa is in complete chaos as it's the rape capital of the world with one of the highest rates in murder, AIDS, poverty, inequality, corruption, and unemployment. Even the current president, who's black, is a rapist and a polygamist, producing twentysomething children. It's a travesty to say the least.

All in all, lacking depth, Cry Freedom should be shorter with more substance, but the current state of South Africa renders my suggestions moot anyway.