Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, November 27, 1987 Page: 6 of 32
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Denzel Washington as black leader Stephen Biko and Kevin Kline as South African journalist Donald Woods.
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instant choice, says the director.
“I flew to New York to see him in
Hamlet,” he said. “His performances
that I’d seen were all bravura, such as
in Sophie’s Choice (1982). I wasn’t sure
if he had the dignity. I wanted
someone with great stillness and great
dignity and great composure and, my
God, he had it in Hamlet. I didn’t talk
to anyone else after that.”
The London-based weekly The New
Statesman questioned the facts on
which the movie was based. It argued
that Woods’ friendship with Biko was
exaggerated in the film.
“If you put the most sinister
interpretation on it, it’s stuff placed by
Dr. Michael Noss, D.O.
Conveniently located at
3911 Lemmon Ave
Discreet and
confidential treatment
for the entire
community
Appointments preferred
522-6922
the South African government to
discredit the film,” Attenborough said.
“If you put a more mundane
explanation on it, it’s no more than
jealousy and envy. It’s scandalous. If it
were actionable I think we should sue,
but I’m not sure it is.
“When I went to see Ntsiki Biko,
Steve’s widow, she gave me immediate
permission to do the film because she
said Donald was one of Steve’s best
friends,” he said. “When Woods’ book
(Biko) was published in 1978 he was
living in a little suburban house with
matting on the floor, secondhand
furniture and five children to educate,
yet sent his first royalty check to
“There is no question,
having shown the film
privately in the U.S. and
the U.K., that its impact on
the audience is
devastating."
— Richard Attenborough
‘Cry Freedom’ director
Ntsiki. Now we are setting up a Biko
family foundation. Who are the
trustees? At Ntsiki’s request, Donald
and me.”
Less disquieting to Attenborough is
the fact that he is now Public Enemy
No. 1 in South Africa — “a badge of
honor,” he calls it. But the title made
for nervous moments when he visited
that country to meet black leaders,
including Winnie Mandela, before
beginning the film. South Africa’s
state-controlled television station
mounted a character assassination of
the director.
“They said I was a card-carrying
Communist financed by Moscow,” he
said. “The next day I pulled into a gas
station with my wife to use the rest
room and five young Afrikaners
followed me in. They blocked the door
and made obscene suggestions. It was
disgusting stuff. I said, ‘Please, don’t
be silly,’ but I have to admit I was
frightened. Anyway, they were drunk
and I managed to get away, but they
continued to yell obscenities at my wife
and me as we pulled out.”
He did not shoot the film in South
Africa but in neighboring Zimbabwe,
whose government contributed $18
million to the film’s budget and
provided 24-hour armed bodyguards
for Attenborough and his wife.
“The South African government now
says we insulted their technicians and
artists by not shooting there,” he said.
It is not that Attenborough does not
take South Africa seriously. It is that
he believes in happy endings with
every fiber of his jolly British being.
“I believe in the human spirit,” he
said. “Ultimately, they fall. Hitler fell,
Franco fell, Marcos; they all go. Right
triumphs. If one didn’t believe that, I
don’t know how one would go on.”
Page 6
Friday, November 27, 1987
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, November 27, 1987, newspaper, November 27, 1987; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615662/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.