STANDER
Directed by: Bronwen Hughes.
Produced by: Chris Roland, Martin F. Katz & Julia Verdin.
Written by: Bima Stagg.
Director of Photography: Jess Hall.
Edited by: Robert Ivison.
Music by: The Free Association.
Released by: Newmarket Films.
Language: English.
Country of Origin: Canada/South Africa/UK. 111 min. Rated: R.
With: Tom Jane, Dexter Fletcher, David Patrick O'Hara & Deborah Kara Unger.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Andre Stander, the youngest police captain in Johannesburg, helps crush a student uprising, killing unarmed civilians. Guilt ridden, Stander requests removal from riot patrol, jeopardizing his career. Seeing how the police are occupied crushing protests, Stander realizes, "White men can get away with anything." And he does – robbing banks. After his first impulsive hold-up, he nonchalantly gives the loot to an astonished black newspaper boy. A master of disguise, he continues his crime spree, sometimes robbing the same bank on the same day, to the humiliation of the police. This fast-paced film, based on real events, follows Stander into prison, where he forms a resourceful gang of thieves, and then to his life on the lam.

Although another look on Apartheid from a white perspective, Stander is a crime drama rather than a political expose. It owes an obvious debt to Bonnie and Clyde in its portrayal of Stander as a rebel against a corrupt state (as well as a slow-motion shoot-out.) Fortunately, Stander and his gang are not patronizingly portrayed as heroes. However empathetic they may be (given the enforcement of Apartheid), Stander and his cohorts become increasingly repugnant as their actions become more violent. And Stander’s appealing humor comes not so much from the charm Stander exudes (and actor Jane has plenty), but from the story itself. Early in his criminal career, Captain Stander investigates a robbery he had committed only a few hours earlier. He asks a bewildered teller, what the suspect looked like. Softly and haltingly, she answers, "You," much to the merriment of Stander's unsuspecting fellow officers.

Director Browen Hughes maintains tension, moving from crime to crime. But as the film speeds along, the portrayal of Stander becomes soulless. His motivations are drowned out by the screeching gateways, and the complexity of his relationships with his estranged father and ex-wife is only hinted. Filmed in earth tones, the inspired production design may bring back memories of TV’s Starsky & Hutch. Tom Jane does bear a strong resemblance to actor David Soul (as noted in the film). But like a TV show, Stander is episodic in nature, and Stander's murky motivations are left unexplored. Kent Turner
August 6, 2004