Walking backwards: Mainstream cinema and Mandela’s legacy

Back in July, I wrote excitedly for Hollywood Hegemony in anticipation of the upcoming screen-adaptation of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The trailer seemed to suggest not only a loyalty to Nelson Mandela’s philosophy, but during a summer of reactionary assault across the globe, an understanding of the broader importance of his legacy. Half a year later, having actually seen it, I can only summarise by saying they ruined a brilliant trailer with a third rate biopic.

Fittingly for a man who has essentially been hollowed out and used as a neo-liberal sock-puppet, Mandela appears quite dead behind the eyes here.