IN MY WORDS | Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

1. In general, what did you like and dislike about the film?

This film, being the first ever movie I’ve seen about Mandela´s life, found a place in my heart because it shows us a more sensitive Mandela. We get to know his emotional side alongside his relationships with his first wife, some lovers and Winnie Mandela in special. Also, we get to see how these relations affected his way of acting and the movements he fomented.

This movie not only speaks about the things Mandela did for South Africa, but most importantly how he felt when doing them, including joy and happiness for succeeding and sadness, disappointment and impotence when he failed.

I kind of dislike the fact that the culmination of the Apartheid is not really denoted, it just s fades unnoticed. The ending of the movie also seems a little bit rushed to me, black on black violence is at its worst peak, but Mandela tells them to go to vote and suddenly they stop killing each other and then he goes on to become president out of nowhere.

2.  In your own words how do you compare the various Mandelas; the ones from the article and the one from the film.

In my opinion we can perceive both Mandelas described in Benjamin Fogel’s writing on the film we watched. The mayor part of the movie shows us a more ‘‘aggressive’’ Mandela, that prefers taking action and even respond with violence against violence in order to cause a revolution. He was ready to put his life on the line and willing to make things happen by himself in a physical way.

The Mandela that is presented to us in the later part of the movie is the ‘’sanitized myth: the father of the nation, the global icon beloved by everyone from the purveyors of global humanitarian platitudes to even the erstwhile enemies of the African National Congress.’’ Because he prefers peaceful ways of resolving things and is way a more talkative person, which finds the answer to the South Africa main problems by negotiating.

3. What was the role that Winnie Mandela played in the film? Think about the contrast between her and the other ANC members.

At first Winnie is portrayed like just the fuel that keeps the fire on the soul of Nelson Mandela’s soul, unlike his first wife, Winnie does support Mandela in all his ideas and in his pursue of equality in South Africa.

But, after Nelson was confined to Robben Island Prison, Winnie Mandela plays a key role in the activities of the ANC, she became the principal promoter for the world-shattering movements. She also starts looking way more destructive after she was imprisoned herself, she starts looking for the most violent ways of resolving the conflict, which cause her to at last go against the ideals of his own husband

4. How do you compare the role of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in the struggle against the apartheid and in the post-apartheid South Africa to the Concertación and their role in the struggle against Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and in post-dictatorial Chile?

I honestly think that Chile didn’t have and probably won’t have a leader like Mandela was, a great portion of the heads that the movements opposing to the dictatorship had were killed (Salvador Allende) or forced to run away from the country (and maybe get killed in the outside).

The dictatorship wasn’t repelled thanks to a leader like Mandela, but thanks to the whole Concertación program which ended up in the plebiscite. That is something that could be compared to what the ANC did to get the power to make changes through elections.

Now, if we start comparing both post-dictatorial Chile and post-apartheid South Africa, I would say that they’re similar by the fact that both made a lot of promises of change and those promises weren’t accomplished at its fullest.

Nevertheless, post-dictatorial Chile, I repeat, in my opinion doesn’t have a figure like Mandela, there’s not a single politician in this country that looks exclusively for the greater good for everyone like Mandela did (or how it’s shown in the movie at least). The individuals with the strains of the Concertación are just as corrupt as the conservative sector and look for personal benefits over what the people needs. None of them is remotely close to being someone with the principles and ideals of Mandela.