iluv2viddyfilms
06-14-24, 04:17 AM
I just posted the following review in the "What have you seen lately" thread, but I was curious to see if there was a thread about it here at MoFo or any discussion and I didn't find anything.
Who has seen this and what are your thoughts? This was a completely random watch on Criterion as I was wanting to watch something I hadn't seen and wasn't really familiar with and just happened upon this. I should say that I'm "glad" I did, but this isn't exactly the kind of film you are "glad" to watch. But my initial reaction is that this thing is an A+ film and a masterpiece, which it isn't often you just stumble upon an A+ film, at least not for me.
So yeah, I'll post my "review" below and then hope to see what other people who have seen it think.
Come Back, Africa (1959, Lionel Rogosin) - A+
https://dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/images/4420c.jpg
This film made me absolutely ill. It's a masterpiece. Plain and simple. It's an interesting narrative documentary filmed in South Africa's Johannesburg and is focused on a main character Zachariah and his family and struggles to find work and fight against poverty and apartheid during this time period. It's plays out like a documentary, but there are characters and a clear and cohesive story. I love how real this seemed and how truly spontaneous and random, just as life plays out, and I think its amazing how music was so pivotal to the story here and some of the musical interludes and moments were just spectacular. Again, I'm floored by this film and still processing at the time of this writing. I do appreciate the discussions on race in this film, but I think all to often, our society has a tendency to attribute to race what is more accurately explained and examined through poverty. Without going too far into my conservative lens here, there isn't a single racial or ethnic group in the world that hasn't at some point in time or place on the globe been subjected to cruel racism and discrimination, yet not every group has been subsequently proportionately affected by poverty as a consequence of that racial targeting and hate. As such to label racism as "the greatest evil" is too simple of a villain to exclusively target and can act as an easy scapegoat instead of examining issues such as poverty and hopelessness with more of a deep dive.
While it seems like, from what little I've read, many critics and historians see Come Back, Africa as a condemnation of segregation - and yes, it is certainly that, I however see it more as an objective look at how cold and unyieldingly cruel poverty can be. In fact this film ranks up there as one of the all time most harrowing when it does come to the issue of poverty right along side King of the Hill, Umberto D, The Bicycle Thieves, Germany Year Zero, Midnight Cowboy, Angela's Ashes, City Lights, and a handful of others. It is all of those films equals in how it tackles the subject, but Come Back, Africa may be the most bleak of them all. One thing I think it does get right about poverty that many films miss... is the emotional toll and the sense of hopelessness and the void of feeling there is no escape. Many films portray poverty as something of a hardship, an unwanted adventure, a thing to overcome and to conquer. Many lesser films focus on the tangible things such as being too cold or too hot, being hungry, living in dirty, cramped, and disgusting tiny spaces and the shame of having to beg, steal, or borrow. Come Back, Africa is one of the few films that actually hits the nail on the head in showing how people in the deepest rungs of poverty suffer perhaps the most in the sense of being "below institutions" or being less than human and a sense that they could exist or not exist because they are simply invisible and nothing with no one coming to save them or even knowing that they need saved in the first place or even caring.
This is a film that really seems to nail down the psychological and spiritual and emotional devastation of poverty and how it can absolutely destroy the soul and human dignity and faith in humanity, which is far more disastrous than an empty belly. The film gets darker, and darker as it goes on too. The last five minutes of this film are about as dark and tragic as cinema can get.
It's a masterpiece in the most unsettling of ways.
Who has seen this and what are your thoughts? This was a completely random watch on Criterion as I was wanting to watch something I hadn't seen and wasn't really familiar with and just happened upon this. I should say that I'm "glad" I did, but this isn't exactly the kind of film you are "glad" to watch. But my initial reaction is that this thing is an A+ film and a masterpiece, which it isn't often you just stumble upon an A+ film, at least not for me.
So yeah, I'll post my "review" below and then hope to see what other people who have seen it think.
Come Back, Africa (1959, Lionel Rogosin) - A+
https://dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/images/4420c.jpg
This film made me absolutely ill. It's a masterpiece. Plain and simple. It's an interesting narrative documentary filmed in South Africa's Johannesburg and is focused on a main character Zachariah and his family and struggles to find work and fight against poverty and apartheid during this time period. It's plays out like a documentary, but there are characters and a clear and cohesive story. I love how real this seemed and how truly spontaneous and random, just as life plays out, and I think its amazing how music was so pivotal to the story here and some of the musical interludes and moments were just spectacular. Again, I'm floored by this film and still processing at the time of this writing. I do appreciate the discussions on race in this film, but I think all to often, our society has a tendency to attribute to race what is more accurately explained and examined through poverty. Without going too far into my conservative lens here, there isn't a single racial or ethnic group in the world that hasn't at some point in time or place on the globe been subjected to cruel racism and discrimination, yet not every group has been subsequently proportionately affected by poverty as a consequence of that racial targeting and hate. As such to label racism as "the greatest evil" is too simple of a villain to exclusively target and can act as an easy scapegoat instead of examining issues such as poverty and hopelessness with more of a deep dive.
While it seems like, from what little I've read, many critics and historians see Come Back, Africa as a condemnation of segregation - and yes, it is certainly that, I however see it more as an objective look at how cold and unyieldingly cruel poverty can be. In fact this film ranks up there as one of the all time most harrowing when it does come to the issue of poverty right along side King of the Hill, Umberto D, The Bicycle Thieves, Germany Year Zero, Midnight Cowboy, Angela's Ashes, City Lights, and a handful of others. It is all of those films equals in how it tackles the subject, but Come Back, Africa may be the most bleak of them all. One thing I think it does get right about poverty that many films miss... is the emotional toll and the sense of hopelessness and the void of feeling there is no escape. Many films portray poverty as something of a hardship, an unwanted adventure, a thing to overcome and to conquer. Many lesser films focus on the tangible things such as being too cold or too hot, being hungry, living in dirty, cramped, and disgusting tiny spaces and the shame of having to beg, steal, or borrow. Come Back, Africa is one of the few films that actually hits the nail on the head in showing how people in the deepest rungs of poverty suffer perhaps the most in the sense of being "below institutions" or being less than human and a sense that they could exist or not exist because they are simply invisible and nothing with no one coming to save them or even knowing that they need saved in the first place or even caring.
This is a film that really seems to nail down the psychological and spiritual and emotional devastation of poverty and how it can absolutely destroy the soul and human dignity and faith in humanity, which is far more disastrous than an empty belly. The film gets darker, and darker as it goes on too. The last five minutes of this film are about as dark and tragic as cinema can get.
It's a masterpiece in the most unsettling of ways.