This dubious tale of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment, based on his prison guard's memoirs, contradicts all other known accounts
Director: Bille August
Entertainment grade: C
History grade: Fail
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned by the apartheid regime in South Africa for 27 years.
Friendship
It's 1968. Ambitious young prison officer James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes) is given a new beat at Robben Island. The highest-profile prisoner there is Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert, miscast). "I'm in charge of the worst terrorist this country has ever seen," Gregory gloats. He receives a special posting at the censorship office on account of his fluency in Xhosa, the language of the prisoners. Soon, though, the intimacy this gives him with Mandela begins to break down his racist opinions. Mandela's own version of the story, from his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, gives a different view. On Robben Island, Mandela wrote, "I had not known him [Gregory] terribly well,...
Director: Bille August
Entertainment grade: C
History grade: Fail
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned by the apartheid regime in South Africa for 27 years.
Friendship
It's 1968. Ambitious young prison officer James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes) is given a new beat at Robben Island. The highest-profile prisoner there is Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert, miscast). "I'm in charge of the worst terrorist this country has ever seen," Gregory gloats. He receives a special posting at the censorship office on account of his fluency in Xhosa, the language of the prisoners. Soon, though, the intimacy this gives him with Mandela begins to break down his racist opinions. Mandela's own version of the story, from his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, gives a different view. On Robben Island, Mandela wrote, "I had not known him [Gregory] terribly well,...
- 5/10/2012
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
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