Escape from Pretoria review – ingenious apartheid-era thriller 3 / 5 stars 3 out of 5 stars. The real-life jailbreak of apartheid-era political prisoners Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) is the inspiration for this taut thriller. Daniel Radcliffe continues to be daring in his acting choices. I had a couple of minor issues with the film. A pacy screenplay, co-written by director Francis Annan and adapted from a book by Jenkin, rarely flags, but it’s the nervy camera, hugging the characters at hip height, the better to scrutinise each locked barrier to freedom, that most successfully builds the tension. And it’s always more than an escape story: it’s either a conscious reaction to injustice or the only way out of hellish surroundings that choose to psychologically smother a person rather than reform him/her. znscr.parentNode.insertBefore(zergnet, znscr); zergnet.type = 'text/javascript'; zergnet.async = true; Prison escape dramas possess something more than entertainment value. His black girlfriend (Ratidzo Mambo) covertly gives him money for later use. The website's critics consensus reads: "Escape from Pretoria doesn't quite do justice to the fact-based story it's dramatizing, but that lack of depth is offset by suitably gripping jailbreak action." Jenkin and Lee were caught planting devices that blew ANC leaflets into the air. While Escape from Pretoria deals with the issues of segregation and injustice only in a didactic manner, craft becomes the center of attention when Annan maintains tension by going through series of problems, integral to the escape narrative, that’s spectacularly solved one at a time. But this is a clever and old-fashioned slice of pulp that does what films with far bigger budgets and huge stars are often unable to do: sustain a palpable sense of tension from beginning to end. Francis Annan doesn’t focus much on Jenkin and Lee’s beliefs which pushed them to be activists for ANC. The cinematographic technique may not be as inventive as the escape itself even though the tension and suspense does not let up for the majority of the running time. First and foremost, there's an over-reliance on voice over narration. Francis Annan’s taut apartheid-era thriller, Escape from Pretoria (2020) is one such prison escape drama, where the brute force attack of an inhuman regime is answered through a tenacious commitment to freedom. Webber’s character suffers more from the utter lack of character development. But shows why men of conscience, who were born in the ruling race and upper-class; swore to fight against it. Available for everyone, funded by readers. While other prisoners accept their fate, a belligerent Frenchman, Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter), refuses to be broken. Leonard is determined to reunite with his little son (whom he sees for only thirty minutes after a year) and approves the duo’s escape plan. We can discern the undying human spirit, a significant part of the human condition. Share 109; Tweet 0; 109 shares. © Watchr Media • All rights reserved. Based on South African political prisoner Tim Jenkin’s real-life account of prison-break (chronicled in a book first published in 1987), it’s a film of nervy camera movements and panic sweats. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. Daniel Radcliffe plays a real-life ANC activist in this fast-paced prison breakout movie. All Images Property of their Respective Owners. These scenes will make your blood boil. Yes, Escape from Pretoria is basically a two hour movie about a beardy Daniel Radcliffe crafting wooden keys and unlocking doors with those keys. Yet the man who made the escape itself says that apart from the condensed depiction of the actions, all the details are so accurate; particularly that heart-stopping denouement when for an instant it seems the freedom is a distant dream in spite of opening 14 prison steel doors. The most distinct aspect of this particular escape narrative, compared to all other real or reel prison-breaks, is that these men involved simply unlocked prison doors to freedom (14 doors to be precise by making keys out of wood). All rights reserved. It's an unnecessary crutch, the acting and story don't need the assistance. The film initially delves into the brutal, racist separation doctrine; then focuses fully on the intricate getaway. They were cut off from the outside world, but saw daily how the guards beat and cruelly mistreated the black servant prisoners. The faith and determination to not concede defeat literally manifests in the very action to break out. The much-needed emotional dimension to the proceedings, however, doesn’t come from Jenkin or Goldberg, but from another high-strung, volatile inmate named Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter; isn’t Fontaine is the name of the central character in Bresson’s masterpiece ‘A Man Escaped’?). But they are touted to be symbols of resistance right from the opening frames. Arun Kumar / April 1, 2020 / 0 / 1.2k. Tim Jenkin, after observing the guards, and the locks on their cells; devises an ingenious plan to escape. An overwrought, chest-thumping score is surplus to requirements in a film that already feels as though everything, from the characters to the walls of the cells, is sodden with panic sweats. Immediately upon entering the Pretoria prison (in 1978), known as ‘the white Robben Island’, Jenkin makes it his mission to break out of the allegedly impregnable prison facility. Director Annan and co-writer L.H. The debate of which is the right way to resist apartheid isn’t profoundly examined as Annan’s pared-down style strictly commits itself to overcome the locked barriers. It's a brief onslaught. Daniel Radcliffe, sporting a thick beard and a shaggy mop of hair, plays Tim Jenkin who delivers one of his best performances post-Harry Potter. Jenkin and Lee had beliefs worth fighting for and getting imprisoned. They skillfully hide their tools in plain sight, but have multiple set-backs.

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