20W2O: What About Mandela?

I didn’t see Mandela in Toronto.

I was too busy. I had too many other movies to see and interviews to shoot and when talent was not available to me at TIFF, the film got pushed aside. On top of that, after Fruitvale Station and The Butler and 12 Years A Slave, not to mention Captain Phillips and Dallas Buyers Club, I was a bit spent on the weighty historic perspective films. I also think that The Fifth Estate got caught up in that big movie experience crossfire with the press, as journalists were getting so caught up in slavery and piracy and Gravity that an intimate piece demanding some thoughtful consideration about how we think about information in the now was just not so appetizing.

I did hear some raves in Toronto about Mandela… but you hear some raves about every single thing in Toronto.

I wandered into the movie, finally, a few weeks ago. I quite like Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, so I was looking forward to what they were going to do. I liked The First Grader, so I was open to Justin Chadwick as the director. But biopics are dangerous territory. I don’t think of Mandela as an Idris Elba-esque NFL defensive end stud. So from a distance, the pieces were not adding up to a “must see” for me.

And then I watched the movie.

I was wrong. The ravers were right.

They had found a way to tell a story that was 625 pages in the book, “Mandela: A Long Walk To Freedom” without boring the audience or doing a greatest hits version of the history. And the key was to lean heavily on the love story at the core of this remarkable bit of history. Mandela is not a historical doc, it is a love story that happens to take place in front of the backdrop of one of modern histories most rare occurrences… the full-blown rebirth of entire oppressed culture.

Being that I make my living writing stuff about movies that are competing with one another at this time of year, I naturally compared Mandela to 12 Years A Slave in my mind. But it’s a false comparison on every level, aside from the number of people of color involved with each story and the oppression by the white population. 12 Years is a very specific piece of historic poetry that speaks to the entire issue of slavery, but as reflected in the story of a free man who becomes enslaved. It is Heart of Darkness as a metaphor for Vietnam in Apocalypse Now. It is, in some respects, Schindler’s List, telling a very small story that illustrates the horrors of a larger one.

Mandela is, in some ways, a more daring as a piece of filmmaking, as it dares to recall the length and breadth of a 65 year history. This is not easy. The real comparison is Gandhi, though Mandela doesn’t have the benefit of movie history on which to hang its hat. There is no Gunga Din or Lawrence of Arabia, which while not specific to the story of Gandhi, established a filmic language of nostalgic love which could be reflected and reconsidered in Attenborough’s film.

There have been movies about South Africa and its plight before, some quite good. But these were not iconic films off which Mandela could push. It had to set its own language, make its own case for the historic significance of Apartheid, and tell the story of a man who evolves into his role of leadership over decades, as well as the woman who brought some of the steeliness that became a signature after his youthful passion faded.

At the center of the film are two performances that are, simply, undeniable. Idris Elba grabs hold of all the things that have drawn audiences to him over the last 20 years and puts it all into this telling of a life—a great man who remains a man—showing a range heretofore unasked of him. 50 years… and it never once feels like a stunt. You feel the power this man must have to lead so many so effectively for so many years.

Naomie Harris, who you know but might not know you know, eats the lens from her very first moment in the film as Winnie Mandela. Where do you know her from? She was the female lead of 28 Days Later, chased by zombies. She is the sorceress in the Pirates movies. She was a cop in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice. She was the school teacher to an old man (and her young students) in The First Grader. And if you still aren’t sure, she is the new Moneypenny, who starts Skyfall by shooting Bond, long before we know her name. Filmmakers have known that there is something about Naomie for over a decade… but just a few minutes seeing her onscreen as Winnie to know that she is a full-fledged movie star in the making.

And that is another thing that makes Mandela so unique. Elba and Harris are playing two characters who are bigger than life to many people. And these two actors are more than up to the challenge. They are movie stars of the first order. They are both, at heart, character actors. But they are stars in the order of Pacino, Newman, Dunaway, and Winslet. If you aren’t getting that, you aren’t really paying attention.

Justin Chadwick, a skinny little white Brit with long floppy hair, leads the way. He and his production team understand the ambition of the task, the greatness of the man, and most impressively, when to hold back. In order to tell a story of this size, there is constant danger of moving along too quickly or lingering too long on any one element of the film. And even though many of us know the history behind this story quite well, Chadwick & Co manage to make the film a thriller in many ways. How much tension can there be in an elderly man meeting with a bunch of middle-aged men in suits who want him to take a public position? You’ll never feel more of it than you do in this film. Or when Mandela first meets Winnie. Or when he sees Winnie in private for the first time in decades. Or as his relationships develop in jail.

This is one of the most important films of 2013. But it’s not just a history lesson. It is destined to define a time and place… a piece of history… just as do The Grapes of Wrath, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, All The President’s Men, Malcolm X, Reds, and, indeed, Gandhi.

Am I overstating the case? For some, I might be. But my fear is that in a season of many excellent films, Mandela is the great film that very few people seem to be talking about. And that is wholly unacceptable. Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom is exactly the kind of film that, 20 years from now, people look back and just assume that it was nominated for Best Picture… that one of its stars may have taken an Oscar home… that it’s obviously one of the films considered “important.” That’s no small achievement. But me? I’d prefer that all to be true this year. Idris Elba’s next Oscar nomination should be his second. Naomie Harris should be making nervous those who think that Best Supporting Actress is a closed deal.

Mandela now.

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