Went out with one of my polytechnic friends today to watch the Nelson Mandela movie. It was very powerful, very intense, and evoked a lot of emotions in me. I'm not sure how different is the movie as compared to his actual life story so whatever thoughts and opinions I have here are based solely on the movie.
The movie has a running time of 147 minutes. Before going into the cinema, I was telling my friend that I might fall asleep since its such a long movie. But no such chance. Right from the beginning, I was immediately captured into the story. I watched the whole movie wide eyed and trying to absorb everything. It was just so amazing. There was such a good balance between the abuse, violence, sex, and touching scenes that made the movie well-rounded.
This movie follows the life of Nelson Mandela where he first started out as a lawyer, then an activist/freedom fighter, then his imprisonment for more than 20 years, and finally as a politician. During his time, and even before that, the Whites have always dominated the Blacks and treated them very unfairly. Over the years, tensions obviously formed between the two groups of people and the Blacks want to fight for their freedom. Nelson Mandela believed very strongly in everybody having equal rights and did all he could to move towards that, which landed him in jail for the destruction he caused.
Whilst I do not agree with the use of violence as a means to solve problems, I do believe that at that point in time, it was the best decision he could make since the Whites will not give the Blacks a chance to talk peacefully. The violence is kind of a wake-up call to the Whites to let them know that something has to be done. But it can be seen that violence is not something Nelson Mandela wanted and when he was released from prison, he made a statement to say that he want peace and freedom for his people but definitely not through violence. He wanted his people to put their trust in him and vote for him during the elections so that he can change things in a civilized way.
Nelson Mandela himself is a very inspirational person and with him as the main character of the movie, it made me think and question about life. When you translate the many obstacles he faces into your own life, you find that its actually not that different. His many years in prison can equate to a setback that we might have. But what makes him so inspirational and successful is that he does not see himself as a victim, even when he was being abused. He continued fighting for his people even in prison and as he aged. That made him a leader. As a leader, you should posses nothing because everything that you have should be given to your people. He has done that. He has given his life to his people. He has dedicated his life to make a positive change for his people and the generations to come.
I think peace is something all countries struggle with and its only a matter of to what extent. For some countries its verbal fighting and for some countries its war. There's always a rationale behind everything, but who is to say what is right and what is wrong; what is good and what is evil? I think its human nature that when something is in your favour you support it and when its not, you fight it. But remember that in every situation, there is this group of minority that can never fight for themselves. And when it happens, who is going to help them? Who is going to be fair enough? I don't really know where I'm going with this because my thoughts are in turmoil. But I totally agree with what Nelson Mandela said towards the end of the movie. He said that nobody is born to hate and love comes more naturally to us. I know its an ideal, but can you deny that when everybody is able to love one another, there will be peace in the world?
Power makes people greedy
War makes monsters of men
