By Mark HadleyWednesday 5 Feb 2014MoviesReading Time: 4 minutes
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom should have been a success. It should have combined searing insights into the nature of humanity with the undeniable power of faith in truths that transcend the individual. But my last sentence is as close to inspiring as it comes. Long Walk To Freedom is more than a wasted opportunity. It will undoubtedly be a tragedy for someone – and that someone may be you.
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is supposed to be based on the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, arguably one of the most inspirational people of the last century. It covers a huge amount of ground from his impressions of South Africa as a boy to his inauguration as its first black President. In between are a string of emotional events that introduce us to his first and second wives (Winnie Mandela), his legal struggles, his involvement in acts of sabotage as a political revolutionary and, of course, the lessons learned through 27 years imprisonment. It’s hard to fault the performance of Idris Ilba as Mandela or the way the film successfully ages him. Naomi Harris’ performance as Winnie is equally good, though her perpetual youth is a little perplexing. However the film’s biggest concern rests with what it does not say.
Nelson Mandela has long been held up by Christians as a modern hero of the faith. The evidence of his belief in God is extensive and often seen as the driving force behind his determination that all Africans be treated equally. He writes in his biography of the same name that the church provided an inspiring witness in a downtrodden society:
“The Church was as concerned with this world as the next: I saw that virtually all of the achievements of Africans seemed to have come about through the missionary work of the Church.”
However Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is unrelenting in its efforts to separate this believer from his faith. Ilba remains stoically silent on the subject except for those occasions where he dismisses the church or attacks his first wife’s belief in God:
Evelyn: “You cant do everything yourself. Leave some things to God.”
Mandela: “Does your God care that the people are going hungry? It seems to me that He only cares for the Boers.”
How could a film get it so wrong? The answer lies with the scriptwriter. William Nicholson has been nominated three times for Academy Awards associated with writing; he should have been a gift to the project. However in attempting to tell Nelson Mandela’s story he has actually ended up telling his own. The son of a Methodist minister and a South African Jew, Nicholson converted to Catholicism along with his parents when he was a young boy. However his studies at Cambridge University replaced his faith with the beginnings of a lifelong dedication to the human spirit:
“Much as I wanted to go on believing, it became clear to me that it’s we humans who make God, in our great need. God, if he existed, would have no need of humanity. But as all my writing demonstrates, the need or the puzzle or the hunger has never left me.”
It’s not surprising that Nelson Mandela’s faith was pared back and reinterpreted even as Nicholson ordered and assembled the fragments of his life. What emerges is a story that contains lots of facts but lacks the flame that set this reformer’s life on fire.
The tragedy I alluded to is a double one. If a Christian sits down to watch this film they will be confronted by the suggestion that Mandela never really trusted God, and never really needed to. And if a non-Christian occupies the seat they will simply have their faith in humanity’s ability strengthened. Divine aid is unnecessary, despite Mandela’s assertion that ‘virtually all’ of South Africa’s gains could be traced back to God’s people.
What Nicholson fails to realise is that God did not create humanity because He needed us but so that we could revel together in our need for Him. Healthy children don’t resent the need they feel for their fathers. We discover our greatest joy when we discover our need because it leads us to God’s generosity. In Jesus, Nelson Mandela said, God provided the answer to ‘the need or the puzzle or the hunger’ that confronts every person:
“The Good News borne by our risen Messiah who chose not one race, who chose not one country, who chose not one language, who chose not one tribe, who chose all of humankind! Each Easter marks the rebirth of our faith. It marks the victory of our risen Saviour over the torture of the cross and the grave.”
Rating: M
Distributor: Roadshow
Release Date: February 6