Published on www.24.com (Jan 2007)
Read the original posting here
Catch a Fire
Cast: Robert Hobbs, Derek Luke, Bonnie Henna, Tim Robbins
Director: Phillip Noyce
Running Time: 102 mins
Age Restriction: 16 V
Release Date: February09, 2007
We gave it: ** out of five
South Africa’s liberation struggle is not fodder for a middle of the road feature, whether or not it was written by a local screenwriter.
Synopsis:
Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) is a hard working, apolitical foreman at the Secunda Oil Refinery in the 1980s. Suddenly, in June 1980, Patrick and his wife Precious (Bonnie Henna) are arrested by Security Branch policeman lead by Colonel Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) and brutally tortured on unfounded suspicions of terrorism. Stunned by the horror of his ordeal, Patrick leaves his family to secretly join the ANC and commits to fighting the oppressive system. The film climaxes in a mission to blow up the refinery, and concludes in the present day with a message of freedom, forgiveness, and hope for the future.
Review:
Leaning on your parents’ activist laurels is not a good enough reason to try to rewrite history, a point that seems entirely lost on screenwriter Shawn Slovo. Catch a Fire intellectually duller than Lumumba (2000) and stylistically sharper than Bunny Chow (2006), but it’s not a film we’d really want to use to tell South Africa’s stories. Not because it doesn’t put effort and a big budget into doing so, but because it doesn’t put heart into it. It’s a coffee table tale of the struggle that tries to make a feature film of one mans’ political journey without really going into the politics of the personal.
It doesn’t tell the real story of being caught in the paradoxes of apartheid; it sells a hero story of man against man. Reducing Chamusso’s story entire to a once-off, one-man onslaught antagonised by arch rival Colonel Nic Vos is a film-centric approach to a story that deserves far better. The screenplay is an inversion of a buddy flick, trying to generate drama from the ‘feud’ between the Colonel and Patrick.
The suggestion that their ‘battle’ symbolised the status quo of the day can only be put down to one big budget feature too many for a director who delves skin-deep. Chamusso’s final choice with the Colonel’s life blows this posturing right out of the sky the way no explosives could.
"...a film-centric approach to a story that deserves far better."
It is evident that Phillip Noyce has not analysed the processes of apartheid with the same refinement that Tim Robbins has examined his character. Robbins is unsurprisingly brilliant, from his perfectly paced intensity to his Afrikaans accent. But the insistence of using white men from America to pull audiences when this country has world-class talent is shameful.
As for Noyce’s handling of South African actors, there’s the distinct feeling that they are over directed. The lead lady and man only really get to have an honest moment to shine at the end, when it’s already too late. Both for their characters, and for the viewer.
Starting out as self-consciously slow-paced and superficial soap opera in the first half, the film only scratches the surface of the brutal realities faced by apartheid’s subjects and does neither the truth nor the tale any justice. Thankfully, Noyce’s professionalism prevails as things hot up to the climax, which is admittedly as gripping and tear jerking as any well crafted formula film, so you can at least expect to be adequately entertained by the efforts.
In its defence, Catch a Fire redeems itself a little at the end with a documentary-like postscript. Moving from fiction to fact, the real Patrick Chamusso meets the lead actor (Derek Luke), and they kick a soccer ball around in mutual appreciation of hard-won liberation. This doubling-up reveals more about Chamusso’s character in a few minutes than the tight directing let through the whole feature.
If Sting is right about history repeating itself, then we’d better try harder. It’s not too late to get over ourselves; so block your ears when the Die Stem resounds, and let’s tell it like it really is.
Ed says: Don't agree with Jess
The reviewer seems to be upset because "foreigners" told one of our stories. At least it was told. Describing Mr Chamusso's story as "fodder" and the film as a middle of the road feature only serves to confirm that she is angry at the story not being told with enough integrity and brushed over by what she seems to believe are whimsical foreigners only out to make a quick dollar. I disagree (although we all know what opinions are). This film has integrity. It is a well crafted story about hope and heart. It shows the rest of us 'Safricans' (and the world) that what were once unanimously referred to as "terrorists" were merely men who took control of their own destiny and fought for something better for the country they loved and called home. I do agree with the point about casting foreginers, but for this we must not blame the film makers and the writer. Blame the studio execs and the distributors who won't fund and distribute your film unless you cast the bums in seats men and women of
