A Dry White Season | |
---|---|
Directed by | Euzhan Palcy |
Screenplay by | Colin Welland Euzhan Palcy |
Based on | A Dry White Season by Andre Brink |
Produced by | Paula Weinstein |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Pierre-William Glenn Kelvin Pike |
Edited by | Glenn Cunningham Sam O'Steen |
Music by | Dave Grusin |
Production companies | Davros Films Sundance Productions |
Distributed by | MGM/UA |
Release date |
|
Running time | 107 minutes |
Countries | United States France |
Language | English |
Budget | $9 million |
Box office | $3,766,879 [1] |
A Dry White Season is a 1989 American drama film directed by Euzhan Palcy, and starring Donald Sutherland, Jürgen Prochnow, Marlon Brando, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon. It was written by Colin Welland and Palcy, based upon André Brink's novel A Dry White Season . Robert Bolt also contributed uncredited revisions of the screenplay. It is set in South Africa in 1976 and deals with the subject of apartheid. Brando was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
This article needs an improved plot summary.(November 2015) |
In 1976, in South Africa during apartheid, Ben Du Toit (Donald Sutherland) is a South African school teacher at a school for whites only. One day, the son of his gardener, Gordon Ngubene (Winston Ntshona), gets beaten by the white police after he gets caught by the police during a peaceful demonstration for a better education policy for black people in South Africa. Gordon asks Ben for help. After Ben refuses to help because of his trust in the police, Gordon gets caught by the police as well and is tortured by Captain Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow). Against the will of his wife Susan (Janet Suzman) and his daughter Suzette (Susannah Harker), Ben tries to find out more about the disappearance of his gardener by himself. Following the discoveries of the murders of both Gordon and his son by the police, Ben decides to bring this incident up before a court with Ian McKenzie (Marlon Brando) as lawyer but loses. Afterwards, he continues to act by himself and supports a small group of black people, including his driver Stanley Makhaya (Zakes Mokae), to interview others to promote social change.
The white police notice their intentions and detain some responsible persons. To file a civil suit, Ben collects affidavits and hides the information at his house. Ben lets his son in on his plans. His son and his daughter both get to know the hiding spots, and after the police search through Ben's house, there is an explosion next to the hiding spot because the daughter betrayed it to the police, but the son saved the documents. Gordon's wife, Emily (Thoko Ntshinga), is killed when she refuses to be evicted from her home. Ben's wife and daughter leave him. The daughter offers to her father to get the documents to a safer place.
They meet at a restaurant and Ben gives his daughter unbeknownst-to-her fake documents, which she delivers to Captain Stolz. Instead of giving her the documents, Ben passed her a book about art. At the end, Ben is run over by Stolz, who is later shot by Stanley in revenge.
Before production, Warner Bros. passed on the project and it went to MGM. Director Euzhan Palcy was so passionate about creating an accurate portrayal on film that she traveled to Soweto undercover, posing as a recording artist, to research the riots. [2] Actor Brando was so moved by Palcy's commitment to social change that he came out of a self-imposed retirement to play the role of the human rights lawyer; he also agreed to work for union scale ($4,000), far below his usual fee. The salaries of Sutherland and Sarandon were also reduced and the film was budgeted at only $9 million. [3] Euzhan Palcy became the first female director and the first black director, to direct Marlon Brando.
The film was shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, England and on location in Zimbabwe.
Dave Grusin composed the score that is mostly on the subtle side for the movie. There is no major theme here other than South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela's mournful flugelhorn passages during the film's saddest scenes. Kritzerland [4] released the soundtrack on CD, featuring 15 songs from the film's soundtrack and four added "bonus tracks" (two alternative takes and two source cues). The CD of the soundtrack fails to mention contributing musicians, including Hugh Masekela, nor includes any of the three Ladysmith Black Mambazo songs (written by Joseph Tshabalala) used so prominently in the film.
The film was released at a time when South Africa was undergoing great political upheaval and regular demonstrations. [5] The film itself was initially banned by South African censors, who said it could harm President F. W. de Klerk's attempts at apartheid reform. The ban was later lifted in September 1989 and the movie was screened at the Weekly Mail Film Festival in Johannesburg. [6]
Brando's performance in the movie earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and he received the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo Film Festival. For her outstanding cinematic achievement, Palcy received the "Orson Welles Award" in Los Angeles.
A Dry White Season earned $3.8 million in the United States, [7] [1] against a budget of $9 million.
It earned £334,314 in the UK. [8]
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of 72 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10. [9] Brando, in his first film since 1980, [5] was particularly praised for his small but key role as human rights attorney Ian McKenzie.
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert called A Dry White Season "an effective, emotional, angry, subtle movie." [5]
Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote, "A Dry White Season is political cinema so deeply felt it attains a moral grace. A bitter medicine, a painful reminder, it grieves for South Africa as it recounts the atrocities of apartheid. Yes, it is a story already told on a grander scale, but never with such fervor." [10]
Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote that director Palcy, "a remarkable talent, has kept her undeniably powerful film ablaze with ferocity and feeling." [11]
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade on an A+ to F scale. [12]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Marlon Brando | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Nominated | |
BAFTA Awards | Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Nominated | |
New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Nominated | |
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Nominated | |
Best Film | A Dry White Season | Nominated | |
Durban International Film Festival | International Recognition Award | Euzhan Palcy | Won |
Tokyo International Film Festival | Tokyo Grand prix | Nominated | |
Best Actor | Marlon Brando | Won | |
Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century, Brando received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences.
Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s. His ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk.
Dame Janet Suzman is a South African-born British actress who had a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, later replaying many Shakespearean roles on television. In her first film, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), her performance as Empress Alexandra Feodorovna earned her several honours, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Helen Suzman, OMSG, DBE was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. She represented a series of liberal and centre-left opposition parties during her 36-year tenure in the whites-only, National Party-controlled House of Assembly of South Africa at the height of apartheid.
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Donald James Woods was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. As editor of the Daily Dispatch, he was known for befriending fellow activist Steve Biko, who was killed by police after being detained by the South African government. Woods continued his campaign against apartheid in London, and in 1978 became the first private citizen to address the United Nations Security Council.
Zakes Makgona Mokae was a South African stage and screen actor. He was well-known for his work with playwright Athol Fugard, notably in The Blood Knot and "Master Harold"...and the Boys, the latter earning him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
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Euzhan Palcy is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her films are known to explore themes of race, gender, and politics, with an emphasis on the perpetuated effects of colonialism. Palcy's first feature film Sugar Cane Alley received numerous awards, including the César Award for Best First Feature Film. With A Dry White Season (1989), she became the first black female director to have a film produced by a major Hollywood studio, MGM.
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