Review: 'Catch a Fire' politics parallel war on terror

Directed by: Phillip Noyce

Starring: Derek Luke, Tim Robbins, Bonnie Henna

Rated: PG-13

Apartheid, the system of racial segregation that was officially put in place in South Africa in 1948, began to unravel in the early 1990s. Black resistance leader Nelson Mandela was released from a 27-year prison stay in 1990, a draft constitution was published in 1993 and on April 27, 1994, the old South African flag was lowered and the African National Congress – with 62 percent of the popular vote – took over leadership of the country.

A number of powerful movies – “Cry, The Beloved Country,” “A Dry White Season” and “Cry Freedom” among them – addressed the political struggle in South Africa, and of late, little has been heard in the international press about the country.

So why then, a dozen years after the fall of apartheid, with a bevy of critically acclaimed films under its collective belt and in a world preoccupied with a new war on terror, does Hollywood decide a movie about political activism in 1980s South Africa is a good idea?

The phrase, “Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” is as good an explanation as any.

Director Phillip Noyce, working from a script by Shawn Slovo (the daughter of white South African activists Ruth First and Joe Slovo), presents a film that shows the chilling parallels between the way the South African government treated suspected terrorists and current attitudes about the present war on terror. While the story at the heart of “Catch a Fire” stands powerfully on its own, the food it presents for thought about the current political clime cannot be overlooked.

The film is based on a true story and, in a career-making performance, Derek Luke (from “Antwone Fisher”) portrays Patrick Chamusso, a black South African who holds a decent job, wants to keep it and eschews all things political. Chamusso is a foreman at the Secunda oil refinery. He keeps a low profile knowing that “to get along, you’ve got to go along.”

When a terrorist attack hits the plant, Chamusso, due to a personal secret he is keeping from his beloved wife and children, is unable to account for his whereabouts.

He’s taken into custody and “interrogated” by an anti-terrorist team led by Colonel Nic Vos. Tim Robbins plays Vos as a cold-blooded and nearly heartless white man dedicated to a system even if he knows it is an untenable one. “Catch a Fire” successfully shows us the way both of the main characters have one common purpose: To protect his own family at any cost.

After various legal and officially sanctioned (if brutal) methods are used to extract information from Chamusso, we think Vos actually may have a heart. Vos takes Chamusso to his own house to share Sunday dinner with the Vos family. It becomes readily apparent this is just another cruel method to break Chamusso’s will. When this too fails, Vos goes to one final extreme.

After a beating, Chamusso is taken back to his interrogation room blindfolded and handcuffed. He hears breathing in the room, begins to ask who is there, and has his blindfold removed by a fellow prisoner. It’s his badly beaten wife, Precious. Upon seeing her, Chamusso finally snaps. He knows he is being video-taped and tells Vos he will stand in court and admit he cut the fence at the refinery and planted the bomb that destroyed part of the plant. Vos’ cronies are ecstatic with the confession. Vos on the other hand informs them he will release Chamusso. He points out that the fence was not cut, there was no sign of forced entry. He doesn’t merely want a conviction if it means that the real terrorist is still at large. This attitude is somewhat confusing considering the lengths to which Vos has demonstrated he will go for information.

Upon Chamusso’s release, he is a changed man. He leaves his family without telling them where he is going. Where he has decided to go is the training camp run by the militant arm of the African National Congress in neighboring Mozambique. Here, Chamusso trains with fellow South Africans and, using his knowledge of the Secunda refinery, helps the ANC plan an attack that will entirely disable the plant.

Is it really possible that a “by any means necessary” attitude toward a prisoner might, indeed, transform a person into what he was merely suspected of being?

Informers are inside the ANC, and Vos manages to continue keeping an eye on Chamusso. He goes to lengths even more cold-blooded than exhibited previously, destroying lives and families without thought.

In the end, as we know now, it was all for naught.

In an affecting epilogue sequence, the real Chamusso takes over the narration of “Catch a Fire” and explains what he could have done, opposed to what he actually did, to his enemy Vos.

“Catch a Fire” is a powerful film and will surely ruffle a few feathers in circles where things are still as black and white as “If you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists.”

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.