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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1987)
"Cry Freedom" Film Merits Large Audience BY HENRY HERX NEW YORK (NC) - “Cry Freedom” (Universal) is about Steve Biko, a black leader whose brutal death while in South African police custody helped rouse the conscience of the world to protest the government’s policy of apartheid and its repressive systematic racism. Biko’s story is told by Donald Woods, a white newspaper editor who escaped from South Africa with evidence showing the government’s explanation that Biko died from a hunger strike was a lie. The result was an official inquest which revealed that Biko had died of cerebral injuries inflicted by repeated beatings but which affixed no blame to anyone for what amounted to murder. The movie intends to demonstrate the enormity of the means used by a minority government to oppress 90 percent of South Africa’s population. It begins with the 1975 army attack and subsequent bulldozing of a large squatters town known as the Crossroads. It ends with the 1974 police massacre of 700 students in Soweto. Both are done with documentary-like in tensity and are emotionally wrenching. The main course of the story, however, is devoted to showing how a white South African came to understand that such abuses could not be ended simply by re forming the system which needs change. The movie’s point of view, then, is that of a journalist reporting what he has seen and learned. In doing so, the narrative becomes more the story of the radicaliza- tion of a white liberal than that of a pragmatic black leader trying to create dignity and unity among his subjected peo ple. There is no question that Woods’ story is an interesting, indeed, courageous one, filled with perilous tension as he is targeted by the regime. The growing pressures on him end only with his escape, disguised as a Catholic priest, and com municated with classic cliffhanger suspense. His plight evokes extra sym pathy because his wife and five children are bound up within it. As played by Kevin Kline, Woods is en tirely convincing as an editor who is given to balancing his criticism of Pretoria’s white racism with that of what he perceives as Biko’s black racism. Challenged to find out what Biko really stands for, Woods meets him and is even tually won over by his efforts toward cooperation rather than confrontation with whites. Denzel Washington is so good in the Biko role that one wishes the movie had concen trated on him rather than Woods, who serves as his interpreter to the world. Biko, an orphan educated in a Catholic mission school, is intelligent and articulate — a charismatic figure that the movie only partially develops, leaving one desirous of knowing more about him and his political philosophy. Unlike his flawless narrative in the historical account of Gandhi, director Richard Attenborough has sacrificed the logic of sequential development for flashbacks as needed to illustrate Woods’ gradual change from objective observer to committed activist. Admittedly it is not easy dealing with a current controversial issue facing the world community. Where Attenborough has succeeded well is in evoking winning performances from leads and supporting players, convincing dramatic re-creations of events and the climate of fear by which the Pretoria regime rules. Much of Attenborough's treatment is dramatically right. For instance, by choosing not to show the police beatings of Biko (he is only shown being brought into the interrogation cells), the details are left to the imagination. The result of the brutality is much more telling. A police doctor informs the guards that their prisoner needs immediate hospital atten tion and they cruelly transport him 200 miles to a police clinic in a bouncing van. The result is not an evening’s casual entertainment but a movie dramatizing a critical ongoing story of the struggle for social justice in a foreign land. It has a message which is neither simplistic nor propagandistic. Viewers will leave with the realization that potential for peaceful solutions in South Africa is being ex hausted and that violent civil war is a growing possibility. It is an important movie because it tries to show the urgent need for the triumph of social justice in a land where the denial of human rights is an everyday occurrence. It is a better made film, and certainly more interesting, than the bulk of current screen fare and deserves a large audience. Because the movie’s considerable violence, physical and psychological, is well integrated within the context of a theme of social injustice, the U.S. Catholic Conference classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. PAGE 9 — The Georgia Bulletin, November 26, 1987 THAT’S DANCING ! takes a look at dance as portrayed through the years by Hollywood. The special, airing Mon., Nov. 30 at 9:15 p.m. on Georgia Public Television, Channel 8, has special appearances by the late Ray Boulger pictured above with Judy Garland. GPTV Specials Carols, Ballet Featured Robert Shaw will conduct the Atlanta Symphony Or chestra and its 200-voice Chorus in a special pro gram of holiday music Tues., Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. on Georgia Public Television, Channel 8. The Christmas Festival offers 90 minutes of hymns, carols and in strumental selections from around the world. The Morehouse College Glee Club and the Young Singers of Callanwolde will also perform. ***** Author and speaker on the dynamics of loving relationships, Leo Bus- caglia, will be featured in “Stories of Christmas Love with Leo Buscaglia” which will air Wed., Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. on GPTV, Channel 8. The program is based on Buscaglia’s warm memo ries of past holiday sea sons. Mikhail Baryshnikov’s version of the ballet, The Nutcracker, encores on GPTV, Channel 8, Wed., Dec. 2 at 9 p.m. Barysh nikov’s treatment of the holiday classic is highly original. It is danced en tirely by adults without los ing sight of the fairy tale quality that has appealed to generations of ballet lovers. * ijc $ :jc $ A film, “Trumpet of Conscience,’’ explores Martin Luther King Jr.’s Christmas Eve 1967 “ser mon of peace.” The Christ mas special will air Wed., Dec. 2 at 10:30 p.m. on GPTV, Channel 8. Based on the sermon from Ebenezer Baptist Church, the half- hour program blends audio recording with personal photographs, historical news footage and contem porary film clips shot worldwide. Mass Televised SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29 THE CATHOLIC MASS — The Mass will be televis ed at the following times: 8:30 a.m. on WOR-TV (Channel 14 on Prime Cable). 9 a.m. on WGN-TV (Channel 15 on Prime Cable). 10 a.m. on WVEU-TV (Channel 69). The Mass from Passionist Communications will be celebrated by Monsignor James Asip of St. Luke’s parish in Whitestone, N.Y., assisted by the choirs of Our Lady of Sorrows Church and St. Bernard’s Church, White Plains, N.Y. V J Father Peter A. Dora Catholic Images TV Political Debates: One Big Show “Is there a satellite available? Great, let’s do it.” “First we need a producer, someone really good who’s already done this kind of thing. What about a moderator? A big name, with established credibility, a TV personality. How about Buckley or Koppel? Maybe Sam Donaldson?” “The producer can handle most of it - the video crew, the equipment, the satellite uplink ...” “Publicity. What about publicity? We can put our own people to work on that; but it wouldn’t hurt to have an out side agency coordinate the whole thing; there are a lot of TV stations out there.” “What about a host? We need a local group to sponsor the event and invite us to participate. No, they don’t need to worry about the details, just an invitation will be enough, we can do the rest.” “Issues? Sure. The issues are the most important thing of all; but we won’t know which ones really matter until the last minute. We’ll have to wait till the pollsters tell us.” Our political process has become one big television show. To prove the point we need only tune into one of these “debates” where the leading candidates of a political party pretend to address important issues while trying to do or say something worthy of a 10 second sound bite on the eve ning news. The whole point of the exercise is to stage an event before the cameras, make it available on a satellite and invite all the local TV stations in the country to tune in and use the material in their news programs. The managers of local stations are delighted to go along with the arrangement because it gives the appearance that their stations are intimately involved in an historic event of national moment. Everybody wins except the bewildered voter. Television first demonstrated its potential for influencing elections with the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debate in which the radio audience thought Nixon won, but TV viewers, believ ing what they saw with their own eyes, judged Kennedy the victor. Political image making was changed forever. Since then the three major networks have enjoyed im mense influence in the national electoral process, control ling nearly all political television coverage from the primaries through the conventions and culminating in that highly-rated show known as election night. During these years political observers have fretted con stantly about a handful of TV magnates wielding such power over the fragile democratic process. Now these par ticular worries no longer apply -- what technology giveth, technology taketh away. Television networks came out of nowhere to become for 25 years our primary mass medium of political ideas; and they could do it because only they had the necessary in frastructure: equipment, facilities, personnel and national distribution capabilities. In the last several years, however, the technology has become decentralized to the point that political candidates can bypass the networks and reach the voters directly. This situation, too, is prone to abuse; but it does demonstrate that the world of communications is con stantly changing and that some of its faults may be self- correcting. (Father Dora is director of communications for the archdiocese of Atlanta.)
