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Escape from Pretoria (2020)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 6/25

EPretoria
6/25: Would you be rooting for a trio of terrorists from the Middle East trying to break out of Guantanamo Bay?

Of course not. That's the problem I have with Escape from Pretoria. Not many people today realize that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist who killed innocent people and that the African National Congress (ANC) had been labeled a terrorist organization for decades by various governments including the British and the United States. Once it came into power in 1994, South Africa started to fall apart and continues to be a poorly-run corrupt country. To date, the ANC has been losing its stronghold as evidenced by voting results.

I tried to find any collaborating evidence to lend weight to what happened at Pretoria Prison, but it doesn't exist. Who knows if Tim Jenkin was telling the full truth in his autobiography Escape from Pretoria? We don't even know what actual crimes he committed while living in South Africa. That's because the history of Nelson Mandela and the ANC has been largely whitewashed nowadays. So, I'll treat the film as fictional to make things easier. Otherwise, if the story did happen for real, why didn't Hollywood pick up the film rights in the late 80's?

A book called The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton must be mentioned because of its intense focus on keys that occurred during the Great Gold Robbery in 1855. Escape from Pretoria takes the concept further by detailing what has to be done and how to get the materials. That's not bad. Unfortunately, a lot of cinematic elements have to be sacrificed along the way.

While listening to the empty dialogue, I thought back to several outstanding prison escape pictures: Papillon, Escape from Alcatraz, and The Shawshank Redemption. All three built up the characters while the escape plan was underway. I could easily remember them: Henri Charrière, Frank Morris, and Andy Dufresne. But Escape from Pretoria? I didn't know or failed to remember anybody's name.

The film also never felt, sounded, and looked South African; afterwards, I found out the whole thing was shot on location in Australia with a mostly Australian cast. Another aspect I hate is whenever something is about to happen, it's like I have to hold my breath as the suspense builds up which happens constantly. By the way, why did the filmmakers have to make Nathan Page a Jürgen Prochnow lookalike? It's so annoying; they probably watched A Dry White Season one too many times.

All in all, Escape from Pretoria is only interesting from a technical point of view in terms of how it was done, but the story must be taken with a grain of salt.