Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU 1980, South Africa. It is the time of the rebellion of all townships against Afrikaans and apartheid. The originality of this film is not to only look at the savage brutality of the South African whites but to look at the reality in a small township just before this rebellion and to explore the human and race relations existing there and how they are in the process of changing with a new generation of people arriving on the scene, though still in schools. It is in these schools that it will all start in the form of a refusal to speak Afrikaans and to answer any request, order or assignment given to them in Afrikaans. The film shows how the growing consciousness is crossing the family of the main black cop in the township, because law and order is in the hands of the South African Police whose officers are white but whose rank and file and even non-commissioned officers are black. It thus becomes the son against the father, but also the mother against the father, though the mother is the maid of the the main white officer of the police station and the husband is the main non-commissioned officer of the police station. But some people from the special branch arrive one day and the whole situation will explode, because they arrived, partly, because their first heroic act is the death of an older militant who hanged himself in his cell, with his hands tied up behind his back. But they also arrive on that day because their intelligence is telling them that the younger generation is listening to the militants that are not dead like Biko or in prison like Mandela or in exile like Mbeki. It shows how the local white head of the police station disagrees about these ruthless methods but he yields, though it is never clear whether it is because he wants to keep his job or because he lets himself be convinced about the necessity to bulldoze down this emerging movement. It also shows that the main black non-commissioned officer of the police station will finally resign and go back to his wife and his son, but it will be too late because a knife will be drawn and used before it can be prevented. And then the police reinforcements, this time mainly white, are arriving in the illegal funeral for the first batch of victims. Their is no end in such a policy : violence calls for resistance and violence which calls for more violence and it may last a long time before the powerful side yields and accept to share power and the majority side accepts a compromise that means sharing power and reconciliation. When we see such a film and remember these bloody years, we are justified to say that South Africa has come a long way and had gone, if not over the brink, at least quite close to taking the deep dive into an apocalyptic catastrophe. Strangely enough it is admirable that South Africa produced the leaders it needed to get out of the stalemate it had been cornered into by the bigotry of a racist and fascist regime.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

DaMond Taylor (dpt32) I've recently seen Bopha again and every time I see this film I am inspired. Morgan Freeman's direction is really something to behold. Rent this movie, see it, the quality of the direction and acting is top notch. There is one scene with Alfred Woodard, where Morgan Freeman skillful uses four or five different angles without cutting once. The tones and color of this movie really captures the beauty of South Africa which brilliantly juxtaposed against the horror and brutality of apartheid. I don't think this film was nominated for anything but of course the crimes and misdemeanors of films like this are nothing new. See this film its important that films like this and Schindlers list are kept in the public consciousness.

bengleson Morgan Freeman directs a wonderful landscape of struggle, oppression and revolt in this film. Danny Glover and the rest of the cast bring this vivid era in South Africa to life. There is no ambiguity here. Nor is there an easy resolution that comes to mind. Watching a film like this from a middle class couch in North America, I am filled not only with awe but a significant discomfort. One knows that time and sacrifice are about the only options available. This isn't simply hindsight. It's the message of the film. Bravo!

Rhythm-2 Bopha! is just a fine film with stellar acting. Once again Danny Glover delivers a great performance the worthy of Oscar or Golden Globe and he just doesn't get it. The struggle of one man's fight to be true to his native land or to the ruling establishment is poignantly portrayed. Alfre Woodard and Malcolm McDowell turn in good performances also.