Nelson Mandela plays an important part in "Goodbye Bafana", but it is not a biography of Mandela. (There is, potentially, a great film to be made on that subject). Rather, it is an example of history seen through the eyes of an ordinary man who unexpectedly finds himself playing a significant role. James Gregory is a white South African prison guard. He grew up on a remote farm where his only companions of his own age were African boys, and as a result he learnt to speak fluent Xhosa. (The "Bafana" of the title was a friend of Gregory's during his childhood). This ability has made him useful to his superiors. He is transferred to Robben Island, the government's high-security prison for black political prisoners, where he is put in charge of censoring the prisoners' mail and monitoring their conversations with visitors to ensure that they do not discuss forbidden (i.e. political) topics.
The film follows Gregory's career and his political development from the sixties to the end of apartheid in the early nineties. At the beginning of the film, he is portrayed as an enthusiastic supporter of the apartheid regime who believes in the superiority of the white race and who accepts racial discrimination as part of the natural order of things. As time goes on, however, his views start to change, partly as a result of the violence he sees directed by the South African police and security forces against the black population, partly because he has come to admire Mandela and the other Black political leaders. Whereas he once despised them as Communist terrorists, he now sees them as men fighting to right the injustices which their people have suffered. This shift in his political outlook makes Gregory unpopular with other white South Africans, especially his colleagues who regard him as a "kaffir lover", and even leads to strains in his marriage. Gregory's wife Gloria is more conservative than him in her unthinking support for apartheid. Her main concerns, however, are not with politics, but rather with furthering her husband's career, and cannot understand why he is putting his prospects at risk with his political stance.
There is little in the way of action in this film- we hear about the "liberation struggle", but for the most part we do not see it. It is rather a film of ideas, with the most important drama being the one taking place inside Gregory's head. The problem is that Gregory's transformation from reactionary racist to enlightened liberal seems perhaps too predictable. There doubtless were white South Africans, including members of the prison service, who continued to hold unreconstructed white supremacist views up until the end of apartheid (and in some cases even beyond), but it is unlikely that a feature film would ever be made these days chronicling the life and opinions of such individuals, so we know from the outset that Gregory's views will undergo a complete change in the course of the film.
Dennis Haysbert was very good in "Far from Heaven", but here as Mandela he seems less a living individual than an iconic symbol of dignity and nobility. The German actress Diane Kruger seemed miscast as Gloria. Although she seemed more at home with the English language than she did in "Troy", her accent often sounded more British than South African. (Joseph Fiennes's accent, by contrast, sounded very convincing to my non-South African ears). She also seemed too young in the latter part of the film, when Gloria is supposed to have aged nearly thirty years since the opening scenes.
Despite these reservations, I enjoyed the film, mostly because of Fiennes's excellent performance as Gregory. He is a basically decent man trying to come to terms with the fact that the ideology to which he has committed himself is morally bankrupt and the political system which it supports is, in the long term, unsustainable. (Although the apartheid government had always stigmatised its opponents as "Communists", it is one of the ironies of history that in the eighties and early nineties the South African Nationalists and the Soviet Communists began to find themselves in similar positions. There must have been many basically decent Russians during the Gorbachev years who faced precisely the same dilemma as Gregory). The film's political stance may be a predictable one, and it may be telling a familiar story, but its message is one of hope and humanity. 7/10
The film follows Gregory's career and his political development from the sixties to the end of apartheid in the early nineties. At the beginning of the film, he is portrayed as an enthusiastic supporter of the apartheid regime who believes in the superiority of the white race and who accepts racial discrimination as part of the natural order of things. As time goes on, however, his views start to change, partly as a result of the violence he sees directed by the South African police and security forces against the black population, partly because he has come to admire Mandela and the other Black political leaders. Whereas he once despised them as Communist terrorists, he now sees them as men fighting to right the injustices which their people have suffered. This shift in his political outlook makes Gregory unpopular with other white South Africans, especially his colleagues who regard him as a "kaffir lover", and even leads to strains in his marriage. Gregory's wife Gloria is more conservative than him in her unthinking support for apartheid. Her main concerns, however, are not with politics, but rather with furthering her husband's career, and cannot understand why he is putting his prospects at risk with his political stance.
There is little in the way of action in this film- we hear about the "liberation struggle", but for the most part we do not see it. It is rather a film of ideas, with the most important drama being the one taking place inside Gregory's head. The problem is that Gregory's transformation from reactionary racist to enlightened liberal seems perhaps too predictable. There doubtless were white South Africans, including members of the prison service, who continued to hold unreconstructed white supremacist views up until the end of apartheid (and in some cases even beyond), but it is unlikely that a feature film would ever be made these days chronicling the life and opinions of such individuals, so we know from the outset that Gregory's views will undergo a complete change in the course of the film.
Dennis Haysbert was very good in "Far from Heaven", but here as Mandela he seems less a living individual than an iconic symbol of dignity and nobility. The German actress Diane Kruger seemed miscast as Gloria. Although she seemed more at home with the English language than she did in "Troy", her accent often sounded more British than South African. (Joseph Fiennes's accent, by contrast, sounded very convincing to my non-South African ears). She also seemed too young in the latter part of the film, when Gloria is supposed to have aged nearly thirty years since the opening scenes.
Despite these reservations, I enjoyed the film, mostly because of Fiennes's excellent performance as Gregory. He is a basically decent man trying to come to terms with the fact that the ideology to which he has committed himself is morally bankrupt and the political system which it supports is, in the long term, unsustainable. (Although the apartheid government had always stigmatised its opponents as "Communists", it is one of the ironies of history that in the eighties and early nineties the South African Nationalists and the Soviet Communists began to find themselves in similar positions. There must have been many basically decent Russians during the Gorbachev years who faced precisely the same dilemma as Gregory). The film's political stance may be a predictable one, and it may be telling a familiar story, but its message is one of hope and humanity. 7/10
