My review was written in January 1985 after watching the film on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.
"Flashpoint Africa" is a very heavy-handed political thriller filmed in 1978 under the original title "One Take Two" (which refers to a phrase recited in place of a clapperboard before a documentary scene is shot). Theatrically unreleased, film is now available on video cassette.
Gayle Hunnicutt toplines a a too-posh looking newshen Lisa Ford, who, together with her cameraman Joe (Siegfried Rauch) gets involved with rebel forces in a Black African country in the midst of a post-independence revolution. Accompanied by a camera-shy Cuban advisor Ramon (played unconvincingly with phony accent by the film's co-producer James Faulkner), they are led to Matari (Ken Gampu), the rebel leader who just happens to be an old Oxford college chum of Ford's. He has kidnapped two girls (Belinda Mayne and Deidre Bates), whose plight is focusing media attention on his rebel cause.
In trying to make a statement concerning managed news and the lack of objectivity in making news documentaries, director Franci Megahy resorts to a very awkward structure, framing "Flashpoint" with frequent cuts back to a London editing room where network programmes controller Trevor Howard is deciding which footage will be deleted and how the docu lensed by Lisa and Joe will be put together. In a ridiculous audience-cheating device, Megahy presents the "Flashpoint" viewer with loads of material that Howard cannot see, in order to hammer home the point that Howard is acting as a self-serving censor. Although gratuitous material such as the pretty kidnapped girls (who become radicalized conveniently a la Patty Hearst) is included, "Flashpoint" emerges as more of a tract than entertainment.
Cast is uninspired (Hunnicutt and Faulkner are miscast, as stated) and tech credits subpar, particularly the crude direct-sound recording.
"Flashpoint Africa" is a very heavy-handed political thriller filmed in 1978 under the original title "One Take Two" (which refers to a phrase recited in place of a clapperboard before a documentary scene is shot). Theatrically unreleased, film is now available on video cassette.
Gayle Hunnicutt toplines a a too-posh looking newshen Lisa Ford, who, together with her cameraman Joe (Siegfried Rauch) gets involved with rebel forces in a Black African country in the midst of a post-independence revolution. Accompanied by a camera-shy Cuban advisor Ramon (played unconvincingly with phony accent by the film's co-producer James Faulkner), they are led to Matari (Ken Gampu), the rebel leader who just happens to be an old Oxford college chum of Ford's. He has kidnapped two girls (Belinda Mayne and Deidre Bates), whose plight is focusing media attention on his rebel cause.
In trying to make a statement concerning managed news and the lack of objectivity in making news documentaries, director Franci Megahy resorts to a very awkward structure, framing "Flashpoint" with frequent cuts back to a London editing room where network programmes controller Trevor Howard is deciding which footage will be deleted and how the docu lensed by Lisa and Joe will be put together. In a ridiculous audience-cheating device, Megahy presents the "Flashpoint" viewer with loads of material that Howard cannot see, in order to hammer home the point that Howard is acting as a self-serving censor. Although gratuitous material such as the pretty kidnapped girls (who become radicalized conveniently a la Patty Hearst) is included, "Flashpoint" emerges as more of a tract than entertainment.
Cast is uninspired (Hunnicutt and Faulkner are miscast, as stated) and tech credits subpar, particularly the crude direct-sound recording.