Bopha!

It is 1980 South Africa. Micah Mangena (Danny Glover) is a black police officer. He is honest and dutiful. He trains the younger black cops. His wife Rosie (Alfre Woodard) is maid in a white household. His son Zweli (Maynard Eziashi) is losing faith in his father as politcal pressure builds and revolts mount. Van Tonder (Marius Weyers) is his friendly white superior officer. As conflicts rise, secret police De Villiers (Malcolm McDowell) leads a brutal crackdown.

Directed by Morgan Freeman, this is a solid film about living under apartheid. Nelson Mandela was released in 1990. An election would be held a year after this movie. In a way, this may have caught the public at the wrong time as the world was looking forward. Nevertheless, this is a well made film with solid performances.

Bopha! is surprisingly quite a memorable and inspiring film about the troubled years in South Africa. One of my favorite actors, Malcolm McDowell was as ever brilliant playing the evil policeman. The problem is that I and many others are used to seeing McDowell as an anti-hero and by casting him as such a nasty role as he plays in this film, you do not feel as shocked and disgusted by his actions as you should do.

It's hard to criticise a film that has such noble intentions. But what should have been a gripping story ended up being strangely emotionally a little flat. Danny Glover didn't really fill out his role adequately, and as his story is the central one, it was a little disappointing. Other performances were generally okay. The score by Horner was not his greatest, and seemed quite derivative of other composers. And way too often it sounded like an American score (all that brass!) Some of the cinematography was stunning.

In the Apartheid era, Danny Glover is a sargeant in the South African police in a peaceful township. He lectures the cadets, he obeys his orders, he takes care of his wife, Alfre Woodard, and their son, Maynard Eziashi. What he finds out during the course of the film is that Eziashi is a student leader of the anti-Apatheid movement, and that new local police commander Malcolm McDowell thinks that the response to peaceful demonstrations is shotgun shells.

It's Morgan Freeman's sole outing as a feature director, and it's a stellar effort in acting by all on hand, particularly Marius Weyers as the sympathetic cop who's shoved aside -- I always expect Glover, Woodard, and McDowell to give fine performances. It's heartfelt, sad, and ultimately tragic. It was also shot in Zimbabwe.

This is an absolute must-see movie for anyone who is interested in the apartheid era in South Africa. The story is seen largely through the eyes of Micah (Danny Glover), a black police sargeant whose job is to keep order in a black township. Micah is proud of his police work. It has fed his family and given them a standard of living higher than anyone else's in the area. It has also made him a traitor in the eyes of his own people, and we see him eventually coming into conflict with the younger generation of blacks in particular, who don't see his job as anything noble. To them he is a "Judas" - betraying his own people. Increasing defiance of the apartheid laws by the young people eventually brings in special forces officers from Pretoria (Malcolm McDowell is excellent in this role) whose ruthless tactics eventually have even Micah questioning his role in enforcing the laws.

Glover was superb in this movie, excellently portraying the confusion building inside Micah as everything he has built his life on up to this point begins to crumble. Alfre Woodard also put on a strong performance as Micah's wife Rosie, who finds herself ostracized from the community because of her husband's job.

The evils of apartheid are clearly shown in this movie, and having seen it, one marvels at the fact that in the end apartheid was so quickly set aside and a modern and democratic South Africa under majority rule was so easily established. Be warned that the South African accents used in the film can be at times a little difficult to follow, but that's a small price to pay for one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

9/10