Cry Freedom

Starring: Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, Kevin McNally
Directed by: Richard Attenborough
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
1987

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A South African activist named Steve Biko (Denzel Washington) befriends a newspaper editor (Kevin Kline) and the two men form an unlikely friendship as they work together to stop apartheid and blatant racism in South Africa.

Review:

Tim: This movie has the important task of telling the little-known (at least in the United States) story of South African activist Steve Biko. This story is so powerful and so important and it is one that everyone should know.

Denzel Washington is absolutely wonderful as Steve Biko. He has so much charisma and is so heart-breaking because of the adversity he faces, the terrible injustices against him, and the overall evil of apartheid. It is so sad. He does such a great job of acting strong and defiant despite grave atrocities against him and his people. He is spectacular. Kevin Kline does a good job as well. He and Washington interact well together. He gives a strong, dramatic performance.

One of the biggest flaws of the film occurs in the second half. The first half of the movie is brilliant because of the interacts between Biko and newspaper editor Donald Woods. These scenes are absolutely terrific. However, the second half of the film switches its focus to Donald Woods and away from Biko. This inexplicable change nearly derails the movie. It is not terrible, but it could have been much better had the movie kept its focus on Steve Biko.

Cry Freedom does tell the story of Steve Biko, and this is one that needed to be told. I truly do love this movie because of that. It does lose its focus, however. Even still, the movie does enough right to be quite good and effective.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



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