Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Released just months before his death, this biographical film serves as a eulogy for the former South African President.
Idris Elba will always be Stringer Bell, but he’s also great as the eponymous detective Luther, and has become a tentpole fixture in Thor (2011), Prometheus (2012), Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012), Pacific Rim (2013) and Thor: The Dark World (2013). He’s fantastic in this film and his delivery of Mandela’s famous “I am Prepared to Die” speech is transcendent.
But as great as Elba is, Naomie Harris is better as Winnie Mandela, managing to make us both sympathize with her struggle and condemn her zealotry. Harris was Tia Dalma / Calypso in the second and third films in the Pirates of the Caribbean series and Eve Moneypenny in Skyfall (2012), but shows a lot more potential here.
Despite the solid performances of the two leads, the film doesn’t work as well as it should. Mandela’s life was so big, it feels rushed in a 150 minute movie, and the film occasionally wanders into hagiography.
This is a great starting point to an understanding of one of the most important men of the later twentieth century, but it’s too one-sided to be definitive.