Endgame

It's 1985 South Africa. Public affairs director of Consolidated Goldfields Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller) sneaks into a township looking for people to secretly negotiate with. Eighteen months later in London, he makes contact with ANC Head of Information Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor). He is stalked by government agents as he tries to convince Professor Willie Esterhuyse (William Hurt) to join in the effort. Head of intelligence Dr. Neil Barnard (Mark Strong) meets Nelson Mandela (Clarke Peters) in prison. Company head Rudolph Agnew (Derek Jacobi) finances the secret meetings but will deny any knowledge of Michael's plans if discovered. In 1988 Somerset, England, the group gathers to negotiate in a palatial estate.

This is a drama of an important moment in history. The first half hour has great tension as Michael scrambles to organize this negotiation. The suspense is mostly lost once the group gathers at that mansion. The outcome is never in doubt. The actors are strong and they keep it watchable.

Shot in a manner very resonant of Frost/Nixon with outstanding editing Endgame is a fittingly unsentimental and very nicely played drama of the last days and brinkmanship of the apartheid negotiations in South Africa.

With competent performances from all involved this is not overacted but rather relies on the relationships and the materials. Cutting between South Africa and the UK it tells the story of the two sides: the Afrikaans government on the one, and the ANC and Pan-African parties on the other. How they came to find a path in what was probably the most volatile of all post-colonial politics to not lead to civil war is the story. Through the efforts of an Afrikaans philosophy professor (William Hurt) and a British troubleshooter for the gold mines (Johnny Lee Miller, who is in excellent form, less manic suits him very well indeed) the players first arrange to meet, meet, and work through the issues. Filmed in South Africa (A lot of outdoor shots) and the UK, this has more story than you'd think on first sight. It has some action scenes, but in the main it is a nicely poised political drama.

The film scores points for exceptional use of camera and again I have to mention the editing which is outstanding: rarely missing a beat and playing its focus on both the players and the reactions this is a first-class lesson is how film editing can make the story better and worth watching on that basis alone if film-making is your thing.

For those of us who remember the marches, the cause, and Mandela walking through the prison gates with Winnie, this films not only gives meat to the bones of the background to that history; it is evocative without being sentimental.

This is a film that needed to be made; and I for one wish that we could see more of this ilk - it is a strong reminder of the best that humans are capable of.

I enjoyed this. It was interesting to see how a PPE graduate can use h's knowledge of politics as well as philosophy to approach a peace settlement negotiation. However, what the film missed out was the crucial role of such an undertaking. It failed to highlight precisely and factually what really happened in the mind of the regime before reaching the settlement and how concretely these meetings were related to that decision,

I wish there had been more dialogue and explanations from Micheal Young's side and how he was brought to conjur up such meetings. The writing was not as dramatic as the circumstances allowed them to be . However,there were good actors, but Jonny Lee Miller played his role perfectly in that he portrayed Micheal Young in a dedicated and yet a humble player in the meetings. It was right for him to have a low profile in amongst the others, but it would have given the film more punch had he been given more dialogue in putting forward the importance of such meetings with a terrorist group. After all, the film was as much about Micheal Young's initiative as it was about the end of Apartheid. A good film on the whole.

ENDGAME, as written by Paula Milne and directed by Pete Travis, is a thinking person's film. The subject is the ongoing crises of the Apartheid in South Africa (here during the years 1985 - 1990, with after film commentary to 1999) and the extended secret meetings between the Apartheid regime as controlled by President Botha (Timothy West), those meetings held between the African National Congress represented by Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor) with prisoner Nelson Mandela (Clarke Peters) as the heart of the blacks and the increasingly disillusioned Afrikaner Apartheidists lead by Professor Will Esterhuyse (William Hurt) convened by a British representative Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller) acting as spokesman for his entrepreneurial boss Rudolf Agnew (Derek Jacobi) of a major British industry vested in South Africa. The talks are wired by Botha's intelligence officer Dr. Niel Barnard (Mark Strong) and level of intrigue is high. The message of the film is the struggle and final victory of democracy and the end of Apartheid in South Africa, and while the cerebral discussions by this fine group of actors is illuminating, the film gains its power from fast shots of the conditions in South Africa at the time, including rioting, terrorist acts, loss of families, and the ever present intrigue and danger surrounding those men attending the secret meetings.

The supporting cast (especially John Kani as Oliver Tambo, the venerated life long friend of Mandela) is exceptionally strong, but in the end it is the unexpected fine acting of William Hurt and the always excellent Chiwetel Ejifor who remind us how small scaled dramas can have far more impact than the big epics we are used to enduring. This film is especially excellent for informing the public about the ins and outs and meanings of the South African Apartheid and why the ending of that evil regime lighted the fuse for so many other important sociologic changes.

Grady Harp

"Endgame," a British film that premiered on PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary" but also played briefly in theaters in America, provides us with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the waning days of South African Apartheid.

The time is the 1980s. While political prisoner Nelson Mandela languishes behind bars and violent uprisings rend the fabric of the nation, the white-minority Afrikaner government led by President P.W. Botha has declared the ANC (the African National Congress) to be an illegitimate terrorist organization run by communists and therefore unworthy of a seat at the table in any negotiations concerning the role of blacks in the future of South Africa. Into the breach stride a number of crucial players who are attempting – at great personal risk to themselves and their families - to bring the two opposing sides together through secretive talks being held at an estate in the English countryside. Present at that event are Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller), a British businessman whose company has vital interests in South Africa and who sees the eventual abolishment of Apartheid as a good and necessary thing on both a professional and moral level; Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a representative from the ANC; and Willie Esterhuyse (William Hurt), a philosophy professor who seems to see both sides of the issue and can therefore serve as an honest broker between the two factions (though the government also sees him as a potentially useful spy for its own side). Mandela (Clarke Peters) and Botha (Timothy West) also appear as characters, with the latter trying to convince the former to denounce the ANC's acts of violence, using subtle tactics of persuasion to do so.

Written by Paula Milne and directed by Pete Travis, "Endgame," which is based on the book "The Fall of Apartheid" by Robert Harvey, strikes a careful balance between conversational sit-downs, where agreements are reached and terms hashed out, and the kind of breath-bating, cloak-and-dagger espionage sequences that are a crucial part of any political thriller. The characters are all thoughtful, three-dimensional men who have strong opinions on matters but who are also open to new ideas and compromise and who often have to contend with their own fears, prejudices and self-doubts before they can finally come to a workable resolution. The movie manages to be intimate in tone while, at the same time, never neglecting the broader political and social canvas against which this small-scale drama is taking place. The result is a well-acted, informative and dramatically compelling re-creation of recent history.

And beyond its purely academic function, "Endgame" serves as an inspirational reminder that it sometimes takes just a handful of brave, morally decent and right-thinking people willing to forget their differences and to come together in a common cause to make the world a better place.