Review by Pamela Zoslov
The year 2013 has brought a bounty of
important films about race. Of them,
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO
FREEDOM is the most accomplished. (Among smaller films, my vote
goes to
FRUITVALE STATION). Less didactic and more dynamic
than
LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER and more intelligently written
than
12 YEARS A SLAVE,
MANDELA manages the remarkable
feat of dramatizing with excitement a long, important biography,
against a complex politico-historical background, This is no dull,
solemn textbook account (like Spielberg's
LINCOLN, for instance).
MANDELA
pulses with life. With Nelson Mandela's recent death at age 95, the
film, directed by Justin Chadwick, is a fitting memorial to the
former South African president and anti-apartheid leader who became a
global icon of freedom and equality.
