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Catch A Fire

2006, Movie, PG-13, 102 mins

Catch A Fire: Review

CATCH A FIRE
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Based on the real-life experiences of Patrick Chamusso, a black South African man who, in 1980, responded to false imprisonment and torture by becoming a freedom fighter, Philip Noyce's timely drama poses the polarizing question, of what, if anything, separates a "freedom fighter" from a "terrorist." Law-abiding citizen Chamusso (Derek Luke), suffers the privations of life under apartheid but wants nothing to do with the liberation efforts of the African National Congress. He only wants to make as normal a life as he can for his wife, Precious (Bonnie Henna), and their two young daughters in the coalfields of northern South Africa. He won't even allow his elderly mother (Charlotte Savage) to tune into the ANC's Radio Freedom broadcasts that come in from across the border with Mozambique. All that changes the day Afrikaner Colonel Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) of the South African Security Police, who fears the end of apartheid will mean an onslaught of crime and communism, arrests Patrick for an act of sabotage he didn't commit: an explosion at the massive Secunda Oil Refinery where Patrick works as a foreman. Even though Patrick has a solid alibi for the day of the blast — he was traveling with the boys' soccer team he coaches — he won't account for the late evening hours when the blast actually occurred: Patrick spent those missing hours with his mistress (Terry Pheto) and their son. By the time Patrick finally admits to his whereabouts, Vos refuses to believe him and continues torturing Patrick at a secret antiterrorist interrogation center. Patrick finally makes a false confession after he's briefly reunited with a badly beaten Precious, but by now Vos realizes he's innocent. Patrick and Precious are allowed to return home, but the experience leaves Patrick convinced that one cannot live "normally" under the brutal injustices of apartheid, and he slips across the border to train with the armed forces of the ANC. Whether you condone the tactics employed by Chamusso and the ANC as they attempt to free their country is really beside the point. Noyce's aim is to show how oppression, false arrest and brutal torture not only don't stop terrorism, but can turn previously ordinary people into your worst nightmare. The inevitability of Chamusso's transformation fosters a certain predictability that Shawn Slovo's screenplay does nothing to counter: The next guy to voice his dream of a free South Africa is surely the next to die. Luke gives a powerful performance — with his looks and talent, he should be a much bigger star — but Robbins is the one you'll remember. Fixed with the faraway look of a doomed man who knows the center cannot hold, he gazes fearfully toward a future he knows is coming and can do nothing to stop. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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