Fifty years ago, South African novelist Alan Paton wrote Cry, the Beloved
Country as a protest against racism and as an inspiration and celebration
of brotherhood.
Now, as a stunning film starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris, along
with a South African cast and crew, the novel’s message of forgiveness and hope
is made available to a much larger audience.
But according to Producer Anant Singh and Director Darrell James Roodt, the
film was almost never made. Obtaining financing and selling the concept was
difficult.
“As a South African, in certain ways it’s a celebration of democracy,” Roodt
says. “With the races becoming more fragmented in the States, I think the
reception it will receive will be interesting to see.”
The novel tells the story of the quest of Zulu Christian Pastor Stephen Kumalo
(Jones in the film) for his estranged son, a quest which takes him from the
hinterlands of South Africa to the mean streets of post-World War II
Johannesburg. Once in Johannesburg, Kumalo is robbed, and his idealistic vision
stripped away after encountering a sister who’s become a whore, and ultimately,
a son condemned to death as a murderer.
Kumalo meets colonial farmer James Jarvis (Harris), the father of the murder
victim. Jarvis represents the old ruling class of white South Africans who were
oblivious of the suffering of the black people around them.
Yet, Roodt says, both the novel and film aim for a certain stateliness of
Christian forbearance, especially given its filming in post-apartheid South
Africa.
“The film is entirely different than it would have been if we’d filmed it 10
years ago or even two years ago,” Roodt says. “It would have been much more
provocative, much more in-your-face. It would have been angrier. We tried to
steer clear of that. The whole nation (of South Africa) now has a new spirit of
reconciliation, of forgiveness, and we tried to capture that. I’m glad we did
it now and not then.”
At the climax of the film, Kumalo meets Jarvis and the two structures, the two
ideas of humanity, are brought face-to-face. But there is no malice, no hatred
between the two as much as there is a common understanding of the tragedies of
life.
“Both men are changed irrevocably at that point,” Roodt says. “My challenge as
a director was to capture that energy and focus it so that people can
understand what both men are feeling.”
According to Singh, making a film of Paton’s novel had been a dream of his
since his boyhood. “A few years ago, I re-read the book and I said, absolutely,
this is the film I
had to make. That was in 1988 or 1989. It took that long to make the film.”
But, he says, “We got people for this film to work at a reduced fee, including
James Earl Jones, Richard Harris, and John Barry (the five-time Oscar-winning
composer). Otherwise, the film would never have been made. At the end of the
day, that smallness of the budget and the quality of the material brought us
together as a cast.”
Hopefully, says Roodt, “This is a film that will change peoples’ lives.
There’s always the danger of only preaching to the converted. The trick is to
deliver a slick, quality product that also breaks the barriers. I can only
think of a few films that do that.
“I’m very interested in the power of film. To make a great film, you need
time. And money is time. It’s very frustrating because the more money you ask
for, the more other people want control of your vision.”
Brought in for under $10 million, a miserly sum by current Hollywood
standards, “Hopefully this film straddles that line,” Roodt says.
Article reprinted with permission � 1995 NUVO Newsweekly
This article appears in January 19 • 1996 and January 19 • 1996 (Cover).