Just watched this movie with Mom on a Netflix disc. Her viewing of the film got her to understand more about him and the wife of his she's most familiar with, Winnie, since she's an avid reader of newspapers and magazines and probably remembered most of their struggles during their lifetime while watching the movie. Since I rarely read about them during those times, I wasn't completely able to put the events together in a naturally flowing way drama-wise. Still, I appreciated the performances of Idris Elba and Naomie Harris in those roles in trying to convey their attitudes resulting from how each suffered during their jail times. So on that note, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is worth a look.

For years now we've wondered if Steven Seagal will ever again achieve the heights of Under Siege 2: Dark territory. Well put your pants back on because in 'Mandela: Long walk to Freedom', Seagal is back to his sofa-faced best. Synopsis: Steven Seagal plays Mandela, a ship's cook framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to jail by the south African rugby team. Mandela (Seagal) is furious about this – so furious in fact that he comes dangerously close to changing his facial expression. What they don't realise is that Mandela used to be a highly decorated Navy Seal. Mandela engages in an epic battle for the freedom of the nation, eventually forcing the incumbent head of state and South African Rugby captain President Botha into a show down in a multi story car park. Botha gives it the big bananas, but ultimately is no match for the flappy hands of the great Seagal – eventually succumbing to a Judo open handed neck jab behind the ear which sends the unfortunate racist plummeting through a glass ceiling into a spike factory. Boring? A little. But sometimes that's the price you pay for historical accuracy. 5 stars.

Great movie on a great man.Details the life of Nelson Mandela, who fought to end apartheid, spent 27 years in prison for doing so, and became the first democratically-elected President of South Africa. Shows his early days, when his aspirations were different, his change of focus, his incarceration, his negotiations with the government, his release, the transition period and his inauguration. It's not just a simple blow-by-blow cold fact biopic. It shows the humility and grace of the man. Without his level-headedness South Africa's transition to democracy and history thereafter would not have been a peaceful one. It would have gone the way of many African countries in post-colonial/white rule and descended into anarchy and civil war.The relationship with his wife, Winnie, is a prominent theme. Initially it starts out as a love story, and an interesting aside, but it later develops into a "what is and what could have been" comparison. Him representing the path that South Africa took, thanks to him, and her the path to destruction.Superb performance by Idris Elba in the lead role. He got the voice and accent down pat too.Good support from Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela.

Let me start this review by saying that I'm a huge fan of Idris Elba's work in "Luther", so I was quite curious to which extent he could pursue his big movie career with the truly showy role of Nelson Mandela, which brought Morgan Freeman an Oscar nomination not too long ago. Well.. it did not for Elba, but after reading many criticism that he just doesn't look the part, I was actually pleasantly surprised when I finally got to watch the movie. The make-up was very fine and I also liked U2's Golden Globe winning song, even if I was glad Frozen's song got the Oscar afterward.The film is a nice biopic on Mandela from his early years up to his later years and summarizes efficiently in roughly 2.5 hours why he did what he did and how he became who he was. As this came out in the year of Mandela's death, it earns additional relevance. Here and there was a scene I was not too fond of, like the whole pants in prison focus. Obviously, it showed Mandela's early fight for equal rights, but it left me rather unattached. Director Justin Chadwick shows us his take on the South African legend here, a couple years after Eastwood in what could almost be described more of a sports movie. I enjoyed Chadwick's "Other Boleyn Girl", which received mostly bad reviews and he did not disappoint me here either. Naomie Harris worked with him before in "The First Grader" and this may not have been the last cooperation of the two. Still, I remember she received lots of early hype as a possible Academy Award favorite for her character here, but I (and also the awards world) felt she could not really fulfill the ambitions. Her character was truly militant and showed nice contrast to Elba's Mandela, but that's all there really was to her. Not the depth one had hoped for. If it's her fault or the script's fault, who knows.As much as I was entertained by the film, I also have to say that it did not bring the outstanding moments, the main character's biography had offered and that could stay in mind for a long time. Of course, the cell he was in for decades was a central point here as well just like in Eastwood's approach. In addition, it was also nice to find out a bit about the people Mandela was working with, especially the high-profile statesmen both black and white, in shaping South Africa the way it became today. I would like to close this review by saying, despite some criticisms I recommend watching this movie and by mentioning my favorite scene which was how delighted they were after the trial that they were not sentenced to death. Still, life in prison is not a bowl of cherries either, but all that mattered that very moment was that he would live and I really liked the way they managed to depict that scene to make it relevant.