Cry Freedom Essay

The sluttishing sea countersign depicts a southeasterly African law of nature fervor on an illegal shanti-town. Quick cuts bring out a sense of chaos, panic and sloppiness as uniformed law club Africans who run in fear. Close up strokings of a vicious barking natural law cut through argon juxtaposed against a panic-struck baby screaming in effect to shock the responder. Other quick cuts break open up natural lawman raping women and assaulting vague Africans who ar not resisting. The fol lowing context depicts a materialisation charwoman listening to a intercommunicate broadcast which states the raid was peaceful, with m any heap re inverting to their home towns.As the woman listens, her facial expression is one of condescension and anger for she knows this is false. A return to the shanti-town uses a panning setting as bulldozers demolish the township. And pile atomic number 18 arrested and taken away. The music which accompanies this is a Zulu protest s ong which reaches crescendo as the tv television camera seizes its pan. It stops on the neb depicting Stephen Biko, a contraband rights activist. In Donald forest bump office a completion up virgule focuses on photographs of police brutality during the raid contradicting the official news. When asked if wood impart print them he relies contumaciously Ill risk it.Clearly, woodwind is an somebody who does not believe in or support the Afrikaans organization approach, qualification him an individual with different values, beliefs and attitudes to the longr white South African society. A closing curtain up on woodland as he decl atomic number 18s Biko is launching a wall of barren hatred and prejudice and I will fight back him establishes woodland character as a champion of humanity. However he has misinterpreted Bikos philosophy and political docket at the outset. Bikos black sense means he wishes to end the wisdom of blacks that they are mid(prenominal)dle-level to whites. However when he put some of these houghts down on paper he was today criminalize by the South African government merely for expressing a desire for equality.The take in of the government was that black Africans were subhuman and inferior to whites. We know how you live, we cut your laws, we cook your food, we strip down your house combines an anaphora of we and your is an accumulation of rhymed verbs to emphasis the indicatorlessness of black Africans. Bikos beliefs begin to take exception woodlands views on black consciousness We stomach to go through the idea that one man is lord to another man, we have to fill the black community with our pride.These declarations are make by Biko at an illegal accumulation (a buttocksball match where Biko must tour of duty hidden in the crowd) A wide cant shot of Biko surrounded by African man and women and children who all turn to him and listen attentively is used to emphasis his individual magnate to influence othe rs and recreate them with black consciousness. Biko is giving the white slew a choice to either fight violently and the blacks will fight them overly or to come peace broad(a)y with an open palm. When assaulted by a policeman Biko asserts that I merely expect to be enured like you would.When the police officer strikes Biko, he immediately retaliates with violence, before explaining we are just as weak as you are. These actions are very brave as the police were capable of murder and Biko may have been beaten to end. Quick cuts from Bikos frightened and anxious close up to the policemans close up, his feel en ired, emphasized Bikos danger. When Biko is on streak for breaching his banning order he is frame in is a neutral angle mid shot and back lit with escape falling on his shoulders and walk suggesting he has been blessed by god.The neutral angle conveys his humanness inviting us to identify with him. The camera switches to a low angle when the essay asks Biko if he th inks the white government is doing any good, the judge is in the cozy up of the frame. Giving power and status to Biko is this scene as Biko says the government does so good, at that place is so little to say well-nigh it. Biko ends his speech by stating our hope is to build up our own humanity, our own ordered place in the cosmea. This scene is immediately followed by a wide angled shot of police destroying the community nub established by Biko.Donald Woods go to Victoria to speak to the head main(prenominal) of the police. Wide angle shots of the police headways praetorian mansion get around the opulent splendor of white politicians in the Afrikaans government in lineage to the poverty of the black townships. The Afrikaans may have built the city nevertheless they built it using the Africans. A sequence where the tribute police raid Bikos house and search for illegal documents reviles the expiration of danger to Biko as an individual in a society which seeks to keep pow er and control in the hands of whites.The police raid at night sort of than in plain light which suggests they are pernicious motives as they are not prepared to search during the day. Low- make spark casts shadows over the police symbolizing their depravation whilst the musical score is threatening in order to accentuate Bikos peril. It is provided by hiding his writing in the nappies of his son that Biko escapes persecution. The following sequence reviles how Donald Woods was also subject to police intimidation. police attempt to harass his domestic companion when Woods intervenes. The officer refers to her as a Bantu female in a derogatory manor, scowling his distaste.Woods points a pistol at the police declaring them to be intruders on his property. A low-angle camera shot of him leveling the weapon makes him appear high-flown and powerful, a quick cut to the police shows them to be worried before Woods is again captured in a low-angle close-up reveling his rage at this at tempted intimidation, he hurls am imperative at the departing officers piss off further evoking his power. Mupeka, an African minister and companion and supporter of Biko is kidnapped from the street by earnest police. A high-angle photograph reviles his wide eye terror as he is bundled into a police car.The following scene reviles Woods shoot from a high-angle and low-key luminance as he reviles Mupeka is dead. The angle reinforces the fancy that Woods is powerless in the confront of the violence and murder which the security police are prepared to use on anybody who threatens the power of the white Afrikaans government. unceasingly reinforced in this film is the idea that thither may be ruinous consequences when individuals challenge the values and beliefs of a society. Biko knew that there are risks to going to Capetown because he knew that he would be breaking his banning order. When Biko was caught he would be put in throw away before trial.Biko would be beaten to deat h in the prisons because it is behind unsympathetic doors where the world couldnt see him and it could be enclose as a suicide attempt. The mis en scene which foreshadows Bikos death at the hands of the security police conveys the full horror which comes from challenging those who hold power in a society which is dictated to keep its power. A long shot of a lit corridor reveals two police officers making their way to the carrels where political prisoners are beaten and tortured, they descend into darkness. The low key illume casts shadow symbolize a lack of hope for those in these cells. vinegarish non-diegetic sound of locks opening and gates close emphasise the control the police have over their captives. The white teletex is accompanied by non-diegetic typewriter tapping which reports clinically and objectively the date Biko was presumptuousness medical treatment. The camera pans from Bikos foot along his naked body craft on the floor of a cell before resting on a mid-sh ot of his nervus twisted to the side. Shadows of bars across him intend his captivity go the swollen and iron out flesh on his impertinence indicates he has received massive head injuries from the police.His airing is shallow and laboured/he is close to death. Low-angle shot looking up at the police conveys their power their grim faces educe their hatred and lack of compassion for Biko. Bikos nakedness and prostrate symbolise his exposure while the doc kneels over Biko beseeching to get him to hospital quickly. Low-key punk casts prison bar shadows over Biko and the doctor emphasising their being trapped by their deal while the police are just about hidden by shadow symbolising their evil secrecy.A high-pitched synthesised harmonize creates tension as the doctor demands Biko be taken to hospital to see a specialist. Maudlin strings accompany the police decision to drive 700 miles to Pretoria while a mid-shot of the doctor reviles him hanging his head in hopelessness. A s till-shot frames Bikos face in closer as teletex and the non-diegetic typewriter discontinue the date and announce Steve Biko dies in hands. This creates incongruity as Bikos brio is worth considerable grief and discouragement yet the clinical and objective teletex core denies this.The mis en scene of Bikos wife and children grieving is a powerful monitoring device of the cost that individuals may suffer when they challenge a society. A wide-angle shot captures Bikos wife sitting treat his youngest child head aloft, eyes closed and tears running down her cheeks. She rocks her son who cries out for Daddy over and over. A Banatul hymn accompanies the scene whilst low-key lighting casts a shadow symbolising the despair and grief Bikos death has caused. In contrast to the previous scenes where shadow from low key lighting abounds Johnny Kruger (police chief) is filmed from a low angled and bathed in a high key lighting.His comments that Bikos death in custody leaves me frigidit y is met with applause. His smiling facial expression suggests he is pleased that Biko is dead, not cold at all. His deliration that he died after a hunger strike is filmed from a long shot creating distance in the midst of him and the responder. A close up on Donald Woods wife begins the test of police harassment against his family/she is called a black loving bitch and is threatened with we are coming to get you, clearly loud over the receiver.A hand held camera jerkily captures the panic and the excruciating unhinge of Woods youngest child who has put on a t-shirt laced with demigod. Her screams mull around the room as the acid burns her face torso and arms, the security police have deliberately targeted Woods family and now his young children just as Bob Ewell attempted to stab Jem and Scout. These actions are despicable but demonstrate the lengths those in society will resort to, to hold open their values and beliefs which keep them in power. A mid-shot of Woods son, als o burned, reveals him crying and afraid.Significantly, this attack persuades Woods wife that Donald involve to escape South Africa to publicize Bikos death. This is a courageous decision as she knows her family will be vulnerable. A mid-shot of Woods wife comforting her young woman as bright slight shines on their face is used to symbolize the virtue and goodness of those who stand up to threats and intimidation. A mid-shot of Biko saying they are kids, they may shout, break a few windows foreshadows the violence of the trail childrens protest which closes the film.