Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

If there is one man's life story that deserves to be told, it is Nelson Mandela's. After a few interpretations on film, the latest effort - Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - is based on the words of the man himself, as recorded in his autobiography of the same name. Basically, this is the story he told of himself, starting from his beginnings as a lawyer, the ANC, prison, and the time after his release (including him becoming the president of South Africa).

Though the story is powerful and the life inspiring, the film does not necessarily live up to the greatness of the man. Idris Elba, portraying Mandela, is nothing short of brilliant. Physically, his resemblance is limited and he is only made to look like the man in the older years. While still playing a young Nelson Mandela, he frequently takes his shirt off, which is gratifying in so many ways but probably not the point.

The cutting of the film appears fitful, made up of short scenes, that feel like unfinished thoughts and makes the story somewhat incoherent. The advantage is, of course, that most of us know the story anyway. But is that a good enough excuse to make the film into a lengthy music video?

But what really, really bothers me about this is rather ridiculous because it is unimportant to the story. Winnie Mandela does not seem to age. There comes one scene, set in the mid to late eighties (I think), where a half-hearted attempt of making Naomi Harris look the age she is supposed to be by putting a little grey in her unkempt hair, but throughout most of the film she appears to be in her thirties.

Ultimately, this is the kind of film biography that caters more to the MTV generation of kids with short attention span than anyone who is seriously interested in the life of Nelson Mandela.

6/10