CATCH A FIRE

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Focus Features
Grade: B+
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Written By: Shawn Slovo
Cast: Nic Vos, Tim Robbins, Patrick Chamusso, Derek Luke,
Bonnie Henna
Screened at: Dolby 88, NYC, 10/19/06
Opens: October 27, 2006

"Catch a Fire" is the kind of film that brings members of the
Academy to attention. It has epic scope, it's based on the
deeds of a genuine hero, it has a happy ending. What's more
the African photography is lavish, the performances complex,
the lines drawn between good and evil. What may dismay
some Westerners now under threat by Islamic fascists is that
the people who are branded as terrorists by the white
government of South Africa during the 1980s and who call
themselves freedom fighters, really are the latter, which gives us
pause (for at least a minute or so) to consider whether in every
case one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. But the
difference is clear. South Africa was a country of some 25
million blacks being governed oppressively by just 3 million
white. By contrast, our own country of 300 million was put
under siege on 9/11 by a small group of medieval-minded
demons located thousands of miles from our shores.

"Catch a Fire" is a biopic, but in no way a dull one. While the
initial segment of the picture serves as exposition of characters
and issues at stake, the latter half becomes a reasonably taut
political thriller, albeit not one to compare with the tensions
raised by a Costa-Gavras in, say, "Z." This is the story of
Patrick Chamusso, who not only took on a dangerous role in
actions against the Boer government of South Africa in the
eighties but who today is a hero to scores of devoted orphans
whom he looks after in unpretentious quarters in his country.
Chamusso, thoroughly apolitical for most of his years, married
to a beautiful woman on whom he cheated to his great
misfortune, is a fellow who was radicalized by the actions of the
Boers under the supervision of a head of the white
government's anti-terrorist forces. The actual man on whom the
movie is based is introduced at the conclusion of the film,
played winningly by Derek Luke, while the role of his nemesis,
Colonel Nic Vos, is performed by Tim Robbins.

The movie opens on a wedding whose party whose guests
break naturally into joyous song and dance, a custom followed
by the black South Africans we meet on the screen even while
they are training in a para-military camp to fight against their
oppressors. Chamusso (Derek Luke), the foreman of an oil
plant located some three hours outside the principal city of
Johannesburg, is arrested when an explosion tears away at a
section of the land. He is tortured and held in a shabby,
makeshift jail by men supervised by Col. Vos. Refusing, or
actually unable, to confess since he had nothing to do with the
rebellion, he is nonetheless taken to Vos's own home for dinner,
the colonel playing good cop, while Vos's wife patronizingly
shows interest in the handsome young man's tribal affiliation
and language.

Upon his release, the newly radicalized Chamusso sneaks
across the border into Maputo, Mozambique, where members of
the African National Congress (ANC) are being trained with AK-
47's to take on the Boer government. (Interestingly, the head of
the ANC faction is a white fellow, whose siding with the black
majority's goals makes one think that he is perhaps an agent
from Moscow, given that the ANC had been infiltrated by
Communist agents. Yet this man, Joe Slovo, is the late father of
this film's scripter, Shawn Slovo.) When the group is betrayed,
Chamusso is among the few who escape with their lives and
return to South Africa to engage in guerrilla activities.

Much of the film's power comes from the music, though while
the African songs have credibility, the gorgeous harmony of the
fighters, the wedding party, and others, is not easy to accept.
Nonetheless the film has an uncontrived feel-good ending (it's
based on historical truths) and has a chance to garner a few
guild awards for the year.

Rated PG-13. 103 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online