Una árida estación blanca

It's 1976. Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) is a liberal South African schoolmaster and a former rugby star. He is shocked by the police beating of his gardener Gordon's son but does nothing. When the kids gather to protest the teaching of Afrikaans, the police reply with violence. Gordon's son goes missing. Ben, in his sheltered life, tries to help and the police tells him that he's dead. Ben again advises Gordon to leave it alone. Gordon continues to investigate and gets arrested. Captain Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow) is the man in charge of torturing Gordon. Gordon's wife brings lawyer Stanley Makhaya (Zakes Mokae). The police claims that Gordon committed suicide. Stanley brings Ben to the Soweto township and shown the truth of his torture. Melanie Bruwer (Susan Sarandon) is a newspaper reporter. Civil rights lawyer Ian McKenzie (Marlon Brando) relents to Ben and takes on the case.

Ben is a clueless idiot at the start of the movie and that is the part that I dislike most about the movie. It would be so much better for Ben to be in denial. Sutherland plays it so wide eye and ill-informed. It would be more dramatic and better as character development that he doesn't come off as ignorant at the beginning. The court case in the middle drags on a little too much. It's often hard to switch into court like that. There isn't the shock of revelation since the movie already showed the torture earlier. This is also very heavy handed. This feels like a sermon more than a drama. Having Marlon Brando there pontificating doesn't help. The other problem is that after the court case, the movie goes back to the white folks. Even though it's not the movie intention, the black folks get sidelined. Nevertheless, it's an interesting attempt at bringing South Africa to the big screen.

It took the cause and message of A Dry White Season for Marlon Brando to leave his self-imposed exile in Tahiti to come back to the screen, albeit in a small supporting role. Still the cause was one of the most remarkable in the 20th Century, the eventually successful opposition to the white apartheid government of the Union of South Africa.

A Dry White Season was originally a novel concerned with the aftermath of the famous Soweto Massacre when South African troops fired on a protest of black Bantu children being forced to learn in Afrikaans the language of the oppressor as Desmond Tutu so eloquently put it.

The son of the gardener at Donald Sutherland's estate is killed in Soweto and his body is not returned. After which the gardener Winston Ntshona is picked up by the special branch of the South African Police for asking too many questions and later he dies in prison the result of a suicide which no one with a functioning brain believes. At that point Sutherland decides to intervene himself.

Sutherland plays a history teacher in a white only school and as he learns about what's going on and starts asking the questions he dare not ask before even to himself. His radicalization is total, but it costs him dear, his wife Janet Suzman and his daughter Sussanah Harker leave him, but his young son Rowen Elnes sticks with dad.

It's not that he doesn't gain a few new friends, African National Congress organizer Zakes Mokae, crusading journalist Susan Sarandon, and human rights attorney Marlon Brando. But he also gains a bitter and malevolent enemy in Special Branch Captain Jurgen Prochnow who apparently does damage control for the government. That includes outright murder of suspected opposition to the apartheid government.

Every actor worth his salt loves a courtroom scene and Marlon Brando might have even come back for that in this film as well as the anti- apartheid cause. He got the film's only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Denzel Washington for Glory. I suspect given Marlon's history with Oscar folks were reluctant to vote for him.

The film really belongs to star Donald Sutherland though and I think it a pity he wasn't given any Oscar nomination for this fine film with an eternal message about freedom.

Having just seen it on the TV again after a number of years it is a stark reminder of the terror imposed on the black population by the security apparatus of S. Africa during the years of Apartheid.

The part with Marlon Brando as the human rights lawyers is particularly good exposing the ludicrous nature of a system that is completely repressive while maintaining the fiction that it is not.

This film should be compulsory viewing in any educational course studying recent African history

A personal reminiscence:-

I was living in Zimbabwe from 87-89 and I remember when the film was being shot on location there. They were shooting the scene at the end when it is raining but it was during the dry season in Zimbabwe in the local news they recorded the fact that they'd had to make their own rain with lots of hoses etc.

I believe this to be one of Marlon Brando's most underrated performances. The film itself is a splendid period piece of Apartheid South Africa. I rarely see this movie mentioned in biographical comment with regard to Brando's career, and yet, it is a stunning performance. I assume the lack of comment is the fact that he only played a supporting role, and that the subject of apartheid probably denied it a higher profile. As somebody who has lived in South Africa, both before and after apartheid, i cannot tell you how accurate the performance of Brando is in this role. There is no doubt in my mind that he must have studied meticulously before playing this part. I do not know why, but there are a large percentage of professional people in South Africa who have an almost perfect "Queen's English" accent...but it is tinged with a slight South African edge which only the most perceptive can detect. Not only does Marlon Brando capture this perception, but he somehow manages to replicate it, which i have always found truly incredible. You would have to live South Africa to know how fantastic his voicing is in this part, but believe me, apart from the power of his acting, this role is a truly stunning illustration of his amazing ability. I hope this movie will obtain the higher profile it deserves in the future.

Manny Wah Hong Kong

Donald Sutherland (one of Hollywood's most undervalued actors) is simply brilliant in this quiet and thought-provoking films. Many black people do not like to see white heroes in films about apartheid or racism. But the truth is, there are many white people who have contributed to the fight for justice, not for black people, but for humanity.

Marlon Brando is also fantastic. Unfortunately, Susan Sarandon's role is quite minimal.

The film is about a white teacher in a posh boys school (whites only) whose gardener asks for his help when his son is arrested and beaten up. The son later dies and the father seeks justice. Sutherland's character is faced with the reality that being a good person and minding one's own business may not be enough, especially when he realises that more is going on in his country than he knows about. As another reviewer has said, Marlon Brando's lawyer character perfectly showcases a brilliant man who has given himself to hopeless causes. he expertly shows in court the injustice that is going on. We see how the legal system worked for the oppressors; knowing this, Brando's character does it anyway. It is the principle that counts. Much like (in a totally different kind of film) King Theoden's words in the Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King, when it is noted that in no way will his army defeat the enemy, replies, 'yes, but we will meet them in battle all the same.' It was people like this who gave of themselves for the sake of others, maybe in future generations to which many of us owe our freedom.