Cry, the Beloved Country poster & wallpaper

Charles Dutton, Charles S. Dutton, Dambisa Kente

Journeying from the breathtaking green splendor of the Zulu countryside to the dizzying vibrancy of 1940's Johannesburg, this is the powerful, poetic tale of two fathers, one black and one white, boun...( read more  read more... )d by a common fate: the loss of their sons. Although neighbors for many years, the benevolent pastor Stephen Kumalo and the wealthy landowner James Jarvis meet for the first time by chance, only to discover a chilling reality: one man's son has murdered the other. In a land shattered by hatred, these two extraordinary men form an unlikely union that transcends the barriers of class and color.

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66% liked it

1,583 ratings

PG-13, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Darrell Roodt

Release Date: December 15, 1995

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DVD Release Date: July 1, 2003

Stats: 87 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (87)

  • clooneyfan
    January 2, 2009
    clooneyfan
    I was impressed that the murdered man's father could forgive and change his way of thinking.
  • jsd35
    October 31, 2007
    jsd35
    Hmm - the earlier version with Sidney Pottier is better, but neither version is even close to the lyricism and power of the novel.

    Admittedly the poetic rhythm and love of the novel is difficult to interpret on screen. Transferred to screen the dialogue seems stiff and the sto...( read more)ry stolid - and even the majestic sweep of South Africa seems to shrink. This is a film that cries for 70mm anamorphic treatment. Both the characters and the country need space to breathe, and if they aren't given this; if they are shot conventionally, without care and attention, if they are not given a minims silence, you get this.

    Both James Earl Jones and Richard Harris are men that have great on screen charisma. Yet Jones simply cannot carry the fragility of the character here, and Harris's role seems insignificant, while the music washes the whole thing down with a slosh of inappropriate sentimentality.

    It tries, but the characters, even on a big screen seem to shrink to a TV, and at times they even bore. The material needed better direction.
  • ladyphoenixxev
    May 12, 2008
    ladyphoenixxev
    James Earl Jones and sir Richard Harris.. when will you see THAT again?! Amazing.
  • rifffinger
    November 25, 2007
    rifffinger
    So many films cover similar subject matter to CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY and in more recent times of far superior filmmaking when tackling the topics of the Apartheid and more general racial barriers (SHOOTING DOGS, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, HEAVEN'S FALL - to name but a few), this...( read more) film by the never heard from since Darrell Root, deserves the same fate. Chief among it's massive missteps is that it pushes so hard to convince you of it's soulfulness, yet is only matched in it's delusions of grandeur by a naivety that stems from the direction all the way down to the depiction of it's characters. James Earl Jones' pastor Stephen Kumalo is a man in his 70s/80s, yet his excessively simple and trusting view of the world and human nature is so infuriatingly and unbelievably adolescent that it renders him nothing but a sap of the highest regard. An utterly stupid character that I had nothing for but contempt for. He confesses, "I cry too easily" and cry he does at every conceivable opportunity. These constant waterworks displays do nothing but continually irritate. Never mind that as a character he fails at EVERYTHING he sets out to achieve, in fact, such a shocking level of ineptitude makes the film almost un-watchable. I thought I might find some retreat in the performance of Richard Harris - the main reason for watching this, after a glowing recommendation from a podcast I listen to - but the awkwardness of the language that plagues every character in the script and the seeming never ending repetition of formal greetings between the two leads, blotted out all his good moments, which although consummately executed in a mechanical sense, never elicited a shred of feeling from me. One of the most overrated performances in recent memory.
    The final court scenes are where the awkwardness and repetition culminate to infantile extremes. Kumalo's son states what he did over and over, in droll monotone, but never once explains why! It made me so angry, how he did NOTHING to appeal his own impending execution and by the end of it all, I couldn't wait to see him be hanged, if only to be rid of such a moronic idiot.
    The film is overly preachy but says nothing and it puts forth every point with such lifelessness you'd have more fun watching a sex education tape. In it's approach and visual style it's barely breathing; a stuffy, stiff, Z-grade TV production at best. Half a star as a rating is too much. Flixster needs to give us the option to award a no star rating. If you somehow come across this, unplug your TV or burn the physical product.
  • sashoy2
    November 25, 2007
    sashoy2
    Read the book would like to see the movie
  • MissLorna
    August 13, 2007
    MissLorna
    James Earl Jones renders a spectacular performance in this movie... the book is just an interesting! Despite the misery depictd in the movie, it ends ends on a flicker of hope for the future.
  • cshelloysters
    July 22, 2007
    cshelloysters
    Utlmate Read......then watch the movie!!! God is good!
  • tatorc69
    July 2, 2007
    tatorc69
    Sounds like a three hanky movie, but it might be good.
  • mcmciii
    May 23, 2007
    mcmciii
    The book is a wonderful synopsis of what South Africa was like at the time and is still now.

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