|
Endgame
Review: Endgame (2009), Directed by Pete Travis, Written by Paula
Milne, Adapted from the book The Fall of Apartheid by Robert
Harvey.
1985,
South Africa. A car is stopped at a blockade in Soweto. Hiding in the
back seat is Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller), a British national
working for mining company Consolidated Goldfields. Nearby, ANC
protesters clash with Afrikaner police. Young is in South Africa finding
key parties on both sides to begin diplomatic talks in a secret location
in England. Whilst few are willing to go to the personal risk of
attending, Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejifor), future president of South
Africa and Professor Willie Esterhuyse (William Hurt), travel to lay the
groundwork for ending apartheid. Intercut with this, we see Nelson
Mandela’s (Clarke Peters) presence in these talks from behind the walls
of Pollsmoor Prison.
Resisting the trap of being a stale historic talk piece, director Pete
Travis takes the frenetic action energy from previous film Vantage
Point (2008) and injects it into every frame of this
political thriller. No single shot is static – the handheld camera,
shooting through wire fences, windows and from rooftops, is constantly
zooming, panning or going in or out of focus, which at times can feel a
little disorienting but ensures that the viewer can never relax. It also
adds tension to the potentially dry discussion scenes.
Travis
works in a language which is at once thoroughly cinematic and realistic.
The stark contrast between the washed out South African exteriors and
darkly lush English manor interiors, as well as his use of sound
(overheard conversations between unseen prison guards, the chatter of a
television in another room, or a complete lack of any dialogue or
ambient sound) illustrates further a world at breaking point these
characters exist in. However, this emphasis on sound makes problems with
ADR more noticeable, and the subtlety of these techniques are undone by
the cartoonishly evil Dr. Niel Barnard (Mark Strong, the bad guy from
Kick Ass, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and the upcoming Green
Lantern). The first shot of Barnard smoking a cigarette after
removing the filter received uproarious laughter from my living room.
DVD
extras include comprehensive interviews with cast and crew (a particular
highlight is William Hurt discussing playing real people on film), and
Madman Propaganda – a set of trailers for other Madman releases of a
similar theme.
The
more I reflect on this film, the more well-crafted it appears to me –
each frame, each sound, each cut, drives the tension, and the
performances of Hurt, Miller and Ejifor are outstanding, bringing a
uniqueness and dignity to the actual people they are portraying. Far
from being a self righteous discursion on apartheid, the film actually
makes diplomatic discussions genuinely exciting. Endgame can’t
help but leave the viewer feeling hopeful. |
