Catch a Fire

Philip Noyce's politically charged thriller starring Academy Award winner Tim Robbins and Derek Luke is brilliant and striking picture. When Patrick Chamusso (Luke) is wrongfully charged with terrorist charges and his family violently offended by the leader of the operation Nik Vos, (Robbins) Patrick joins the rebellion to fight against the regime.

As the film touches on the many tones of politics, racism, and economic problems in South Africa, the emotional and dramatic quality of the film is the beauty of it. While the screenplay has flaws in character arc, the film is as beautiful as it is tragic. Derek Luke puts forth the best performance of his short career and is on his way to many potent and demanding roles in the future. His humanity and heroism shown in Patrick carries the film on his shoulders and when years pass, this will be film we will remember Luke's breakout turn besides Antwone Fisher.

Tim Robbins brings forth a frightening turn with his spot on accent but is a little distracting and a miscast. With no direction for his character to go, many questions are left unanswered and frustrates the viewer. He still shows us he is one of the best working actors today when put in the right role.

Bonnie Henna who puts forth an admirable effort as the supportive wife, "Precious," leaves the audience a bit disenchanted but has the strong will that makes the viewer worry for her. While Patrick is training and gets his codename, "Hotstuff" in which the film is adapted from of the same title, Henna is given enough screen time to run with her role and soar.

Noyce creates some great cinematic moments with Luke but I have to say, I give Luke much of the credit. He completely engulfed himself in his role. His charm and charisma is his strongest attribute and lets the film succeed as much as it can. The film however never really "catches fire" rather sparks up all over the place.

Grade: ***/****

With Rabbit Proof Fence, The Quiet American and now Catch A Fire to his credit in succession, Phillip Noyce appears to be leaving the blockbuster action movies behind and moving into the realm of serious but still mainstream cinema. These are all very proficient films with interesting stories that contain relevant social and political messages. It is noteworthy that the three are all based on historical facts.

This style of film-making is much more interesting than films like Syriana or (especially) The Constant Gardener. In those, the director appears to make a show of promoting a worthy world view, but doesn't really seem committed to the political cause. It felt gratuitous, the director simply exploiting our interest in political conspiracies without necessarily sharing that interest. Whatever it takes to get bums on seats.

It is a difficult balance for a director. You want to do a story that you know is going to be hard to sell. So you need a big name or two to get the studio on board. But then you're stuck with a highly recognisable face that everyone knows is American but has to use an Afrikaaner accent.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Tim Robbins was completely believable as the South African police interrogator. His accent seemed flawless, and with his excellent acting I was able to buy-in to his character immediately. And I assumed that Derek Luke, who played the protagonist Patrick Chamusso, was African. In fact, he's from LA and has appeared in Spartan and Antwone Fisher (in the title role).

Apartheid, like say Nazism or so-called terrorism, is an easy target. It doesn't take much effort to totally demonise even minor participants, even though they may be ordinary people. Noyce skilfully avoided such caricatures. Using effective cinematic devices, he was able to portray that both the protagonist and the antagonist had much in common. They both had two daughters, and both loved their families and their country. But one became a torturer and one became the tortured.

Noyce's portrayal of Apartheid was very balanced. Robbin's character Vos was a family man with a job. His family loved him, but at work he was a man to be feared. Torture is a method that has been shown to not work. Both Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo and Noyce's Catch A Fire illustrate this by depicting false confessions that were actually made by innocents. According to Noyce at the Q&A session that proceeded the film, the confessions made by Chamusso after he joined the ANC were deliberately sparse on detail and designed to appease but ultimately frustrate his interrogators.

I asked Noyce if the film was making a statement about current world events, and he acknowledged that it was. It is very relevant to the war on terror and the West's turning to inhumane methods. "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter", he quoted. Patrick Chamusso was a hero, he said, not because he took up arms, but because he renounced them. The ANC had a policy of not harming innocents, but this wasn't always the case. Chamusso was unsuccessful (and was jailed), because he was careful to follow this policy.

Phillip Noyce is showing himself to be a deft master of quietly subversive films with commercial appeal, but ultimately they are socio-political commentaries with a strong humanitarian element. This film should have wide appeal among both casual movie-goers and the more serious cinephiles.

This film didn't have the attention it would have deserved, at least in Europe (no attention at all in Italy..) but it's quite riveting. Elevated and empowered by Tim Robbin's and Derek Luke's performances "Catch a fire" has the right impact and vibrancy. It should raise important political questions in a world obsessed with terrorism and it's also filled with well - staged action scenes. The apartheid era is properly described and the social history developing in this context is certainly remarkable, though not flawless. Compared to other productions dealing with the same subject this one offers a perspective a bit different and more mature and ends up with a surprising forgiveness

The picture shows life in Apartheid-era South Africa, it deals about the real story of Patrick Chamusso(Derek Luke), an oil refinery foreman, soccer coach and good father of family . He's married to Precious(Bonnie Henna) and with children. The president Botha's government rules in iron hand of the supremacist white minority over the black population in an oppressive system. When happen an explosion in the refinery Patrick is arrested by police colonel Nic Vos(Tim Robbins).The secretive torture and sadism that follows in custody leads to his changing ideals. His wife is also arrested and then truly starts to watch the atrocities, forced to become freedom fighter and then he goes into action. Rebellion against the repressive government breaks out his mind. He's attempting to change his world for the better but at the expense of using terrorist means. Then he goes to Mozambique where is trained by the local terrorist guerrilla and he joins the ANC, African National Congress.

This is an exciting and thrilling movie based on real events.This story about apartheid is very compelling made and deserving a fine treatment with poignant moments.It's completely convincing and makes a moving and powerful statement about the evil of the racism. Superb cast with fine all round performances; particularly from Derek Luke, he does a very good job, he's surprisingly good in the role of dad turned terrorist, and excellent Tim Robbins as sadistic torturer.The remainder of the casting was also competent enough and did splendid acting.Evocative cinematography by Garry Phillips and Ron Fortunato. Adequate musical score with African sounds by Philip Miller . The motion picture is professionally directed by Phillip Noyce.

Another films about ¨Apartheid¨ theme are the following: ¨ Cry the beloved country¨with Sidney Poitier; ¨The power of one¨ with Armin Mueller Stall and Steven Dorff;¨A world apart¨by Chris Menges with Barbara Hershey and Jodhi May; ¨A white dry season¨with Marlon Brando; ¨Cry Freedom¨ by Richard Attemborough with Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline; and the biographies, as ¨Mandela¨ with Danny Glover and Alfre Woodward as Winnie and ¨Mandela and DeKlerk¨, among others.

I can't quarrel with those who give this film high praise for powerfully representing the complex humanity of both the oppressor and oppressed with first-rate film-making. Essentially it tells how a capable, peaceable bystander is bullied into becoming a "freedom fighter" (or "terrorist" if you will), at cost. BUT given most of the film's present-tense dramatic intensity, I was disappointed by the sudden lapse into voice-over past tense narration at the end, hastily tacked on it would seem to tell us that though the story seems a downer, historically it all turned out well after all. I'd rather have seen another hour -- maybe less -- that continued the tale on its own terms -- the subject is epic enough to deserve it. Or else seen all that end material separated from the film itself, an end flourish upwards amid the end-credits, performing the job but leaving the main story its own integrity. Too bad. An excellent film, strong but in this regard imperfect.