I find it rather amusing, that you are using a movie database sounding board to voice your frustration. Heres a little homework assignment for you. Open up your history books, hopefully they have been given revised since the 1800 edition you last had. One list should contain every single act of barbarism, violence, rape and injustice that the Europeans have committed against Africans, and the second should contain every act of violence against Europeans by Africans. You see maybe Im lucky because I have been educated in a country like the United States I have been granted a luxury. The country I live in gives me the up to date information on the true history of "your" country. I know you probably got most of your history lesson from your pro apartheid grandfather's arm chair built on the backs of the natives. How sad I truly feel for you, but continue to rant about the injustices of being white in a country thats not even yours. God bless America, where we believe in freedom and justice for all.

Gee, an intelligent film about an interesting topic. I'd like a thousand more like this, please. It even treats the audience like we're intelligent, rather than pointing out the ramifications of each twist. And they managed to do that with the dramatized treatment of an actual matter. Just imagine what tremendously clever & entertaining totally fictional stories Hollywood COULD give us if we insisted upon it. Rise up and accept no less! -- Having read a selection of other postings, I will add that my comments refer to this as if it was a film, rather than the Al Quaida training manual others see it as. I'm sorry that, when I watch a film, I look to be entertained and have my horizons widened; I guess there is something deficient about me that I think for myself. Apparently I failed in watching this film by not developing any respect for communist tyranny or religious terrorism. I also once listened to an old recording of a Nazi band without starting to hate the Jews or wishing to invade my neighbors. I'm sorry. From the director's, "If we were going to defeat terrorism, the only way was to get an understanding of the terrorist mind," I guess he has the same belief about movies as me.

I am not a historian and I know little about apartheid in South Africa. However in this movie we find that Patrick Chamusso is a real person and that most of the story in this movie really happened the way it is told. A good movie, with high production values.Tim Robbins is Colonel Nic Vos, and he sounds authentic with either an Irish or South African accent. He is a member of the ruling white government and always on the watch for revolutionists.American Derek Luke is believable as Patrick Chamusso, a humble refinery worker with a family and who is wrongly suspected of being a revolutionist. Torturing him for names, which he cannot give, they also end up mistreating his wife, Bonnie Mbuli as Precious Chamusso. This angers him, makes him fully realize the need to combat apartheid, and he leaves home to train with the revolutionists.The movie is often not fun to watch because of the themes depicted, but it has a favorable ending, and we see one of the freedom fighters who helped end apartheid in the early 1990s.

Catch a Fire has many ingredients for a good, maybe excellent movie. The actors are fine, the story is interesting, the themes are human and important, the cinematography is beautiful. There is a convincing villain with a devilish charm. The daughter of this villain is rebelling, so there are conflicts in abundance. Still Catch a Fire does not work, one might even call it a failure. How comes? The problem, I think, is that hardly any theme is completely developed. Many themes easily can be missed, so briefly mentioned as they are. Take adultery and jealousy. These are essential for the story. Still we are to believe, that Patrick and Precious immediately forgive each other, when Patrick is freed. But no, in the epilogue we learn they are divorced some time later. Or the revenge theme, see the final scene with Nic Vos. Or the friendship theme - halfway the movie Patrick's best friend just disappears. Or Nic Vos' rebelling daughter. With some effort I could go on and on. Catch a fire wants way too much - or is too short, depending on what view you take. It wants to present musical, drama, action, suspense, politics. In the end it is nothing. Though I did not really get the chance to become involved, I was not bored or annoyed either. For its good intentions I rate it 6/10. But I might be a bit prejudiced pro this movie, because of Tim Robbins and because of the subject. I have made a tiny contribution to ANC's work myself 30 years ago.