analysis
How good, or bad, is the latest Mandela biopic? Let's put it this way - it has a new U2 song on its soundtrack.
Last year, there was a brief break in the clouds regarding the largely turgid history of the biopic. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with the first ten minutes and the last five lopped off, was an almost perfect depiction of a legendary figure.
Yes, it never strayed far from hagiography - history is written by the winners, and in this case, the winners were Yankee super-liberals like Spielberg - but it took the last months of the American president's life, in this case Lincoln's attempts to jam the thirteenth amendment through a recalcitrant Congress, and observed them minutely.
Spielberg and writer Tony Kushner mangled a few details, some of them libelously so, but buoyed by powerful performances and an otherwise careful script, it was a film about how a political genius operated the machinery at his disposal. In this, it was an unqualified triumph.
South Africa's Lincoln - our George Washington, our Mahatma Ghandi - is, of course, Nelson Mandela. You'd be forgiven for asking, "important fellow, but for heaven's sake, haven't we biopicked him...
Last year, there was a brief break in the clouds regarding the largely turgid history of the biopic. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with the first ten minutes and the last five lopped off, was an almost perfect depiction of a legendary figure.
Yes, it never strayed far from hagiography - history is written by the winners, and in this case, the winners were Yankee super-liberals like Spielberg - but it took the last months of the American president's life, in this case Lincoln's attempts to jam the thirteenth amendment through a recalcitrant Congress, and observed them minutely.
Spielberg and writer Tony Kushner mangled a few details, some of them libelously so, but buoyed by powerful performances and an otherwise careful script, it was a film about how a political genius operated the machinery at his disposal. In this, it was an unqualified triumph.
South Africa's Lincoln - our George Washington, our Mahatma Ghandi - is, of course, Nelson Mandela. You'd be forgiven for asking, "important fellow, but for heaven's sake, haven't we biopicked him...
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