Escape From Pretoria movie review by Movie Review Mom

MOVIE TITLE:  Escape from Pretoria

RATING:  PG-13

LENGTH:    1 hour 46 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE:   A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

I’ve always been fascinated by prison stories, especially if they’re true ones.  This thriller takes us to South Africa where we get to watch the true events unfold with two political captives placed in jail during the dangerous apartheid days of 1979.  Writer and director Francis Annan creates an old-school jail break that will keep you riveted.

It’s a story that needs to be told, especially as things are heating up in South Africa AGAIN.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

• A man gets beaten with a stick. Another man punches another man. Otherwise, there is a surprising lack of violence considering the movie takes place inside a prison.
• There is quick mention of Mandela. Kids may not be familiar with Nelson Mandela’s story, nor the history of apartheid in South Africa.
• Some profanity.

THEMES:

• Race, apartheid
• Politics
• Ingenuity
• Freedom
• Courage vs. fear
• Hope

THINGS I LIKED:

• Daniel Radcliffe has been very busy lately!  His film Guns Akimbo was just barely released and now this film has hit theaters too.  I know a lot of people will never be able to see him as anything other than the child actor in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but his performance in this movie was excellent.  He does a great job showing his acting range in the variety of roles he has been choosing in films recently.  Good for him.
• Daniel Webber plays a supporting role, along with Mark Leonard Winter, although Daniel Radcliffe truly carries the film.
• There is a lot of tension from the very beginning until the very end.
• Some real film footage and photos from the 1970s give you  a sense of the history.  At the end of the movie, you get to see photos of some of the real men.
• Some people are calling this an Australian film simply because it was filmed in Australia. The story takes place in South Africa, mostly inside the walls of a prison, so it doesn’t matter to me where it was filmed.  Apparently, the filmmakers wanted to film in South Africa, but due to financial issues, they had to either film in Australia or not make the film.  I’m glad they chose Australia so they could share this story with all of us.
• The sound effects were so good that whenever a door squeaked or a key creaked, you feared for the lives of the protagonists.
• The creative camera angles kept things interesting.  Just like in the recent movie The Invisible Man, there are a lot of moments that are crafted with long camera scans that build tension and suspense so effectively.  Two great thrillers in theaters at the same time.  Sweet.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

• You don’t get enough backstory to truly understand what the protagonists were up to right before they got arrested. We assume they’re good people trying to make a point about equality, but we don’t really get enough information.  All we see is that they distributed some political leaflets.  That was their big crime?  Surely, there was more to it than that, but they’re swooped off to jail and we know we’re missing something.
• The movie focuses on the plan to break out of jail, not on character development. We just don’t get to learn much about the people we’re rooting for. I wanted to learn more about who the men were and spend less time watching keys being made.
• Some Americans might have a tough time understanding everything said because of the South African accents.
• I’ve always thought it odd that jails allow prisoners to work on tasks with tools, knowing they could make weapons and other items with those same tools.
• I’m completely biased, but the best jailbreak movie ever made is The Shawshank Redemption.
• Threatening fellow prisoners and truly awful security guards could have built up even more tension.
• Many of the scenes at night are so dark that it will make viewing on small devices difficult once the movie goes to streaming.
• It’s a bit of a slow burn told in chronological order.  Because of that, the movie actually feels longer than it is.

INTERESTING LINES:

• “We are prisoners of conscience, so it’s different for us.” –  Denis Goldberg    (Ian Hart)
• “In prison, nothing stays the same, and yet nothing changes.” – Tim Jenkin    (Daniel Radcliffe)
• “That’s how you beat the fascists: one act of resistance after another.” Tim Jenkin  (Daniel Radcliffe)
• “Freedom is very simple idea, which is why, perhaps, it can be so easily lost.” – Tim Jenkin  (Daniel Radcliffe)

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@TrinaBoice