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CATCH A FIRE
Directed by: Phillip Noyce.
Written by: Shawn Slovo.
Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anthony Minghella, & Robyn Slovo.
Director of Photography: Ron Fortunato & Garry Phillips.
Edited by: Jill Bilcock.
Music by: Philip Miller.
Released by: Focus.
Country of Origin: UK/South Africa/USA. 102 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Tim Robbins, Derek Luke, Bonnie Henna, & Mncedisi Shabangu.

Freedom fighter and terrorist are as common terms in today’s American lexicon as they were in South Africa during the 1970s, where Catch a Fire takes place. The difference of perspective that separates the two words is the focus of the discussion here. Based on a true story, Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) is the head of a South African anti-terrorist task force, and Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) is one of the few non-white foremen at the country’s largest oil refinery. Set almost two decades before the end of apartheid, these two men and their personal evolutions are what propel this morality play of radical acts versus acts of righteous rebellion.

Patrick is notable in his community for being one of the plant’s few apolitical workers. The picture of virtue, he raises a family, loves his wife dearly, oversees the local soccer team, and practices photography as a hobby. But because of his prominent role at work, he is the prime suspect when an explosion, blamed on the anti-Apartheid African National Congress, occurs while he’s away at a soccer game. The choices he makes after being cleared of charges set the tone for the film’s second half and make Catch a Fire another portrait of a budding terrorist like last year’s foreign-language Oscar nominee Paradise Now, analyzing the actions that cause the transformation from law-abiding citizen to self-avowed freedom fighter. Nic’s racism and brutal methods of extracting information from suspects like Patrick are what turn the reserved, apolitical worker into a man who clamors for change at whatever cost. For that reason, it’s certainly a topical film that builds a defense case for the extreme measures some feel are necessary to regain firm control of their country.

How much of the film is dramatized is almost inconsequential because it works even better as fiction. Patrick is such an ennobled character with such a clearly defined arc, and his wife, Precious (Bonnie Henna), is so earnest and devoted to her family that their perfection can only exist on the silver screen. As a production with a complicated political message that was geared for a PG-13 rating, the characters’ lack of ambiguity makes the film’s points clearer for a PG-13 audience. (There’s still enough emotional impact and sentimental drama to make the movie appealing to the same mainstream moviegoers who lauded the straightforward heroism of Hotel Rwanda).

Phillip Noyce’s fast-paced direction is matched with the beautiful cinematography of the South African landscape and apocalyptic images of the historic Secunda Oil Refinery, which supplied power while much of the world had imposed sanctions against South Africa. Nic is played particularly well by Robbins, however, the character never quite changes like all the other characters around him. He flip-flops back and forth from being the altruistic do-gooder to being frighteningly sadistic, but that’s the only complaint in an otherwise crowd-pleasing film. Zachary Jones
October 27, 2006