Goodbye Bafana film review

1.- In general, what did you like and dislike about the film?

I didn’t like the film so much. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I wouldn’t say it is the best by any chance. Maybe, the thing that I liked the most was the African culture representation through the few stick fights and the use of xhusa language.

The movie tries to show a side of the society during the apartheid struggle, the whites who were against white supremacy, and uses Gregory as his symbol. However, isn’t shown to be fighting or something, if anything, he was helping the government by giving them information.

That’s the point I disliked the most about this film. They had a point of view that isn’t considered at all, but they wasted it and instead fell into making a mediocre Hollywood movie that, if it wasn’t for the controversy surrounding it, would be forgotten.  

2.- Who was the character you liked the most and the character you liked the least in the film? Why?

I can't say that I liked any character are all. Most of them are really one-dimensional and those who aren't are not particullary likeble. Maybe the one that surprised me the most was Gregory’s wife. She isn’t a very important character, but its shown to have at least a little bit of development, especially when you compare her speech to her daughter about apartheid, saying that it was god's plan to separate good from evil, to the end of the film when she showed interest in meeting Nelson Mandela.

The characters I disliked the most are Winnie Mandela and Gregory. Winnie because of her little participation,  and Gregory because he wasn't an "active" so to speak protagonist. I'll explain this later on the review.

3.- How do the versions of James Gregory, Nelson Mandela, and Winnie Mandela compare between Goodbye Bafana and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom?

Because of the different perspective in both films, the versions of Nelson and Winnie Mandela in "Goodbye Bafana" aren’t as deep as they are in "Long Walk to Freedom". Nelson is shown as a revolutionary at first, many times exposing his will to do everything to get equality.  However, later he takes the role of sort of a mentor and a friend to Gregory, giving him some advice on life. Winnie, in the other hand, is only shown as the wife of Nelson and not as her own person. This really contrasts with the other film, where she is a central part of the struggle, totally independent from the ANC.

Gregory here is the main character, meaning that his part on the movie is way bigger than it was in "Long Walk to Freedom". But Joseph Fiennes performance is bland, and it didn`t allow me to like the character at all. During most of the film he does nothing besides what his superiors tell him to do, and when he does something, it is not really relevant or ends up getting him in troubles. With that being said, the movie keeps trying to make us think that he was really, really important to the government, sort of a mediator between them and Mandela. At the end of the day, he is not more than a puppet to the system, who feels like he can so something to change it but ends up doing nothing.