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Cry the Beloved Country Movie versus Film Essay

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Cry, the Beloved Country is a moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom. They live in an Africa torn apart by racial tensions and hate. It is based on a work of love and hope, courage, and endurance, and deals with the dignity of man. The author lived and died (1992) in South Africa and was one of the greatest writers of that country. His other works include Too Late the Phalarope, Ah, but Your Land Is Beautiful, and Tales from a Troubled Land.
The book was made into a movie starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. The book takes you to South Africa, where the land itself is the essence of a man. It as if the mountains, soaring high above the clouds, are the high moments in life, and the valleys are …show more content…

At times, sections of dialogue are lifted directly from the books pages. More importantly, however, Paton's themes are brought home with devastating, deep impact through a production that captures the book's essence as close as it recounts the narrative. There isn’t a false note in Cry, The Beloved Country. Every scene in the film is perfectly executed with great composition.
Cry, The Beloved Country is the first movie about racial relations in South Africa I personally have seen which trusts the viewer’s intelligence enough not to set up one or more characters as a straw man to represent everything evil about apartheid. Technically, the time period of the movie predates the formal institutionalization of apartheid, but I still think the point’s valid. Based on Alan Paton’s 1946 novel, this film gives us a loving but painful look at a society headed toward increasing division and violence. James Earl Jones and Richard Harris give great performances as fathers who are tested by the unhappy fates of their respective sons. When these two have their first major scene together, we can’t help but feel compassion over the emotion involved. And later, when they eye each other while taking refuge from a storm in a leaky church, they become an picture for two different and wary tribes sharing a common home. The meat of Cry, the Beloved Country concerns how events in the wake of the shooting transform the lives of Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis. Each is forced to abandon their

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