You can feel the tension, see it in everyone’s faces, as the rest of the plan comes together (helped a bit by a lack of security cameras) there is always a guard almost in reach, almost finding their plans.Ī lot of that tension is channelled through the performances of the lead characters in what is a relatively small cast when compared to other similar films. If they are caught, their whole plan is gone, and any hope of escape vanishes. There is one moment where a key jams in a lock while a guard is coming where everything hangs in that one moment. At any moment someone who you don’t want to overhear could be listing, something your plan needed could fall apart, or at any moment a guard could arrive. Where Escape From Pretoria excels is in its moments of tension, which when your movie is set in prison can be found nearly anywhere. They dream of escaping, but how do you do that when you are locked behind several feet of steel?ĭaniel Radcliffe and the rest of the cast bring to life these moments of tension that had me on the edge of my seat. While in Pretoria jail they meet Denis Goldberg (Ian Hart) who was put on trial with Nelson Mandela and fellow prisoner Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter). One day after a successful campaign, they are captured by the police and sentenced to twelve and eight years in the all-white political prisoner’s prison in Pretoria. It is here where we are introduced to Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe) and Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber) who work setting up leaflet bombs for the African National Congress or ANC. So to set the scene, we open in the heart of apartheid South Africa with accrual footage of the time. Well, today we get to explore both of these with Escape From Pretoria. As well as this, I have seen a lot of prison break films in my time, some fictional, some real, some ‘we think this is how they did it’, and I have always found them fascinating. For the most part, Escape From Pretoria works well, but it’s a shame Annan didn’t take more time to dig into the ordinary men who made this extraordinary escape.One of the things I like the most about cinema is when they let me know of stories that I have previously been unaware of. Colleague David (Daniel Webber) is given so little depth he’s basically a glorified extra, despite being second on the bill. His life before prison is largely a mystery. We learn only the bare minimum about Jenkin and his motivations. Given the effectiveness of the escape scenes, it’s a pity there’s little character-work around them. His South African twang takes a few detours via Wales and north London, but it’s far from the shakiest on screen (Ian Hart, as a veteran protestor, gives us an accent from… we’re not exactly sure).ĭaniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber in ‘Escape from Pretoria’. His big eyes turn in a hell of a performance. Radcliffe gets very little dialogue to work with – you don’t talk a lot while trying to evade detection – but his face tells us everything we need to know. It boils down to a lot of variations on the same sequence – a desperate game of hide and seek – but they’re all executed very well. As Jenkin loses keys, snaps keys, or struggles to find a hiding spot before the guards spot him, the soundtrack is heavy with panicked breathing and the scenes tightly edited to make you feel as jittery as possible. He ratchets up some very clammy tension as Jenkin perfects his methods. He chooses to focus on the mechanics of the escape, rather than the men escaping. Up-and-coming British director Francis Annan is straightforward in his approach. Even more absurdly, it works, though obviously not without complication. He’ll use those keys to unlock every door in the prison and walk out the front entrance. He will make wooden keys, copied from the originals by observing the guards using the keys each day and then, well, just giving it a go. In the film, Jenkin’s plan for escape is simple but absurd. He made sure he only spent a fraction of that time behind bars. Their actions involved nothing more violent than distributing pamphlets, but the government’s zero-tolerance stance on dissent meant Jenkin was given a 12-year sentence. He plays Tim Jenkin, one of a group of white South African men imprisoned for protesting against apartheid in the 1970s. Based on a true story, prison break drama Escape From Pretoria sees Daniel Radcliffe give one of his best performances to date.
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