February 11 - End Game

Today’s movie is a political drama with a scene that happens today – February 11. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.  

END GAME          

Michael Young, who works for Consolidated Goldfields, with the behind the scenes support of its president, Rudolf Agnew, tries to arrange meetings between prominent Afrikaners and the African National Congress, with an eye to ending the political stalemate in South Africa in order to avoid a civil war that would lead to economic collapse. After initially refusing, Professor Willie Esterhuyse agrees to be an Afrikaner representative. The South African President begins talks with the imprisoned leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela. They hope to get Mandela to denounce the ANC’s violence in return for his freedom. Dr Niel Barnard, head of the South African security service meets with Esterhuyse and tells him he is to be a government spy at the talks. At the first meeting between Willie Esterhuyse and Thabo Mbeki, an ANC leader, Mbeki says that power sharing is not an option and only majority rule is acceptable. Esterhuyse tells Mbeki that Botha knows about the talks. After ANC agents plant a bomb in South Africa that kills civilians, Esterhuyse walks out. Mbeki gets him to return by promising to stop civilian deaths.  Dr Barnard continues to try and pressure and entice Mandela to split with the ANC leadership in exile. Blacks that don’t like the talks threaten Mbeki. Mandela is moved to better conditions and Afrikaners threaten Esterhuyse. De Klerk is elected President of South Africa. He sends his brother to the talks, but he seems not to be very interested in them. Then suddenly he asks when real talks can start and what preconditions the ANC would have. A breakthrough is achieved when Mbeki says they have no preconditions and can meet any time. On February 11, 1990 [1:33:39 to 1:36:40] Nelson Mandela is released from jail after 27 years.

An interesting drama. Well-written script functions as a low-key political thriller. Very good performances by Hurt and Ejiofor.

Mandela: The Authorized Biography by Anthony Sampson (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1999) at page 401 and the film at 1:33:42 give the date of his release.

Producer - Hal Vogel

Director - Pete Travis

Screenplay - Paula Milne

Runtime – 1 hour 41 minutes

Released – January 18, 2009

Starring -       

William Hurt as Willie Esterhuyse         

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Thabo Mbeki            

Jonny Lee Miller as Michael Young

Mark Strong as Dr Niel Barnard

Derek Jacobi as Rudolf Agnew

Timothy West as P.W. Botha

Clarke Peters as Nelson Mandela

John Kani as Oliver Tambo

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014