Film Review of Goodbye Bafana

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

I like the development of the thought that exists about the struggle of the blacks. The relationship between James and Mandela seemed incredible to me, and that is why I highlight a scene that I liked very much, which is at the end when they ascend to the position that James' wife wanted for him almost 20 years ago, and Mandela looks at him with a face of pride.

Something that I didn’t like, although it’s something technical and very random, is the physical aspect of the protagonists over the years. It's okay for the children to grow up and everything, but Gregory and his wife didn’t noticed the advance of that, so a person realizes that the movie is filmed within a not very long period of time, and sometimes that deconcentrated me from the important plot. I know it's weird but that happened to me watching the movie.

2. Who was the character you liked the most and the character you liked the least in the film? Why?

The character that I like the most in the film was James Gregory. I liked the development he had regarding the ideals for which Mandela and his allies were imprisoned. That despite being at risk, he also decided to get information, go to a library and read documents that weren’t allowed, and also take a sheet of this with him. And that he also comes to talk with Mandela, especially in the other language, reflect with him and give the Christmas gift to Winnie. Although I don’t know if all that really happened, I liked it in the film.

And the character that I liked the least was Gregory's wife, Gloria Gregory. Simply because of the principles that she has. The racist sayings that she has during the film made me detest her in each appearance, especially when she tells her daughter Natasha that the coexistence between blacks and whites isn’t natural. Although she eventually became someone different, that part didn’t appear during the movie.

3. How do the versions of James Gregory, Nelson Mandela, and Winnie Mandela compare between  Goodbye Bafana and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom?

I, in the first film, didn’t see James as a great protagonist in the story, I saw him as a secondary character and that he almost did nothing. But, in this, it seems that he had a great influence in the development of Mandela's destiny, or at least that is what they show us, almost as if it weren’t for him the story would be totally different.

In Goodbye Bafana we barely see the protagonist of everything, Nelson Mandel, but in this movie I saw him speak much more his language than in the previous one, if I remember correctly in the other one he only spoke like this with his mother, but in this the presence is much greater.

If Mandela almost didn’t appear, Winnie is much worse. In this film practically doesn’t exist, they show it as a very secondary character, almost unimportant, and very submissive to everything that happens. They don’t show her ideals, what she did for Mandela and the whole movement. With luck appears in 3 scenes to support her husband and be next to him. On the other hand, in the first film, we can find out everything she managed to do.