Mandela: Long walk to freedom review

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

     This movie does a really good job as a Nelson Mandela biography, having a great focus on his role in the struggle for the elimination of the apartheid, his participation on the African National Congress (ANC) and his relationship with his wife, Winnie Mandela. The production value here is really good, everything from the actors and performances to the scenarios and photography has a great quality.

     Something I didn’t like about the film is the way that the relationships between Mandela and other characters are developed. For example, his friendship with his prison guard James Gregory is only implied, but never really shown or confirmed. The same can be said about many of his companions on the ANC. This can be because of the short duration of the movie, as the makers had to fit almost every part of Mandela's life in two hours and a half. The exception to this is his relationship with Winnie. Every interaction they have feels real.

2. In your own words, how would you compare the "various Mandelas;" the ones from the article and the one from the film?

     The movie shows mainly the “actual Mandela”, the revolutionary man with the conviction to do everything he needs to do in the battle against apartheid. He is shown this way in most of the film, during the beginning of the movement to his late years on Robben’s Island jail. It is towards the end that we get to see the “myth” Mandela, the wise, non-violent man who became president and “finished” oppression in South Africa.  I think this change was really abrupt, at one scene we see the revolutionary man and after a little cut he becomes the figure most known in the media. We can asume this change happened out of camera, as his experience in jail made him became a more acertive person.

3. What was the role that Winnie Mandela played in the film? Think about the contrast between her and the other ANC members.

     Winnie Mandela played a big role in this movie, maybe even bigger than Nelson’s one. She had a much more radical point of view of the problem than the ANC. She wanted to take the power and eliminate white supremacy through the use of weapons. The people of Africa really supported her ideas, after all, she was the key figure when Nelson was in jail. She had charisma, and her followers loved and trusted her.

     As I said earlier, there is a big contrast between the ANC point of view and hers. After she was imprisoned for over a year, she started to think that the only way for native Africans to stop apartheid and get to power was by the use of violence. Because of this, her ideas became the contrary of Nelson’s, which later lead to their separation.
     This character is the spotlight of the movie for me. She is a key figure in South Africa's history, and was treated with the respect she deserves in this adaptation of Mandela's life. 

4.- How do you compare the role of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in the struggle against the apartheid and in the post-apartheid South Africa to the Concertación and their role in the struggle against Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and in post-dictatorial Chile?

     As Chileans we may relate in some way to the South African struggle. Both apartheid and the dictatorship were long periods of time where people’s rights were highly repressed, and both have consequences we can see to this day. These can be seen especially in an economic level, as Chile keeps having the model established in the dictatorship and South Africa is still struggling against poverty and the lack of employment.

     Another similarity between both conflicts is the way they entered the process of transition, both by democratic voting – Chile had the plebiscite and South Africa the election.

     A big difference I see between both cases it that there is not a real representative figure in the movement to get back to democracy in Chile. While South Africa had both Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Chilean’s movements were their own figure. However, we can compare South African’s leaders to Salvador Allende as inspirations for those who wanted a change.