After reading comments on Tashi Tagg’s article on tvsa.co.za, I kinda felt compelled to write a counter article of my views on this movie on my tvsa blog. This is what I wrote:
Film-makers like any other business people know that they can’t please everyone though in terms of profit they’d like to see everybody flocking to cinemas to see their shows. I agree that THE HANSIE MOVIE is not groundbreaking or even that entertaining but there are some good things about that movie that need to be applauded.
What’s wrong about it?
Try as he might to downplay it, Frans Cronje in penning the movie did in some points paint his brother as some “Jesus”. If you gonna tell a story about someone that your audience know all too well the best option is to leave your personal opinion at home and keep to the subject matter. Frans failed dismally to to tell Hansie’s story without the exaggerated “he was a good guy and only did that because…” sentiments
Regardt Van den Berg, on the other hand could have chosen to take the script and use Frans’ vision but use his own experience to portray Hansie as a human being not as a saint like the subsequent material suggests. I know it would have been easy because let’s face it, Hansie can only be depicted in two ways. One, he was a boy from a church going family with impeccable morals who grew to be corrupted by a morally tainted society. Alternatively he could be an obnoxious, deceitful, greedy motha f, who enticed others like some of his team mates into his web of dishonesty and sin.
Now this is where the dilemma comes in. The latter would have made Hansie haters very happy whereas the first depiction, which is what Regardt and Frans went for, makes them seem like in the Cronje’s attempt to restore their son’s legacy they are trying to shift the blame for his action on circumstances. This is laughable.
Whats right with it?
Frank Rautenbach gives a sterling performance as Hansie. He is very convincing and doesn’t try too hard to be Hansie but in some way finds a way to portray this character with some element of truth. The problem with playing real life characters is that actors sometimes can lose touch with the fact that they are a vehicle for the characters they play and not the driver, the story is. If they concentrate too much on being the character then they lose the plot and the audience with it. Case in point Beyonce in Dreamgirls, yes they would claim now that Denna was not Diana Ross but was inspired by her however to the audience and clearly to Beyonce, Deena was Diana. In trying to be Diana, Beyonce lost sight of who Deena was and in the process lost her audience. Compare that to Morgan Freeman as Mandela. He doesnt try to be the man, like copy everything about him, but he allows the story to lead him to the Mandela his audience expects to see. Morgan was true to the character and I believe in playing Hansie, Frank managed to do that.
The other thing that’s applaudable about the movie is that it’s beautiful to watch. Some of the scenes in the movie were shot using Phantom high speed camera which produced detailed slow motion footage. Those of you who have seen Planet Earth would know how mesmerizingly beautiful such a shot is especially watching it on HD tv. Hansie gets a nod from me for being the first SA movie to employ such innovative use of technology
I know we all have different tastes and opinions but once in while we have to give credit where credit is due and I hope by sharing my thoughts with you about Tashi’s article and the movie itself would encourage you to sometimes look beyond what it’s expected of you and formulate your own opinions. It’s funny how sometimes because of the hype or criticism one ends up not really having his own opinion about a movie but gets entangled in the noise it creates. I have actually stopped reading movie reviews and very rarely see a movie in cinemas. I prefer dvd because you can pause and rewind if you don’t get where the story is going. And I love the special features. It’s amazing how hearing about the actors and directors’ thoughts about their movies can give you a different perspective on the movie, be it positive or negative.
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