Four years ago Morgan Freeman received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing legendary South African activist Nelson Mandela in the rugby-based film, “Invictus”. Now, Idris Elba takes-on the task of playing the iconic figure in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”, which is based on Mandela’s autobiography.
This is a full-on life story. The movie begins with Mandela as a child in Africa, going through the ritual of becoming ‘a man’. Then it jumps to his life as a ruthless attorney, working in white-dominated South Africa. It was then, in his early twenties, that Mandela was inspired to take a stand for the oppressed blacks in the country. He joined a small group and started the African National Congress, making speeches and organizing boycotts. The government responded with violence, and hundreds of residents were killed for protesting. Mandela and his crew responded with violent attacks of their own. They would eventually be captured and sentenced to life in prison, with Mandela leaving his wife Winnie (played by “Skyfall”‘s Naomie Harris) and children to continue the fight without him. And the film takes us through his long prison stay, the efforts to free Mandela, and Winnie’s role as a leader in his absence.
“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” lives-up to it’s title: it’s long – as in 2 hours and 20 minutes long. The recent trend in film biographies has been to focus on one, specific time period or event in the life of a historical figure (“Invictus”, for example). But because director Justin Chadwick has taken-on so much material with “Mandela”, he’s unable to provide much depth or insight into the man.
The middle section of “Mandela” is the strongest, when he’s suffering in prison, waiting for the day he can touch his wife, see his children, and attempt to make things right. The film is gripping at times, but doesn’t stay consistent throughout. Chadwick does take some chances that pay-off, but there are chunks of this film that needed some inspirational moments – or simply could have been edited-out altogether.
Elba’s performance as the late Mandela is solid
(complete with accent and some nice makeup as he progresses in age), but
is noticeably restrained. However, Harris is almost too
over-the-top as Winnie, who consulted on the screenplay, along with the couple’s two daughters.
“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is quite violent for its PG-13 rating. There are beatings, shootings, killings, and lots of blood, often involving young children. It’s appropriate for older teens and up. This is a solid, certainly tolerable, but superficial and far from extraordinary biopic that could’ve been much more.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” gets a C+.