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Load of rubbish!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's a good movie in here somewhere. Ghetto uprising. Blacks mowed down by racist cops. White-dominated justice system that defends the status quo. But hey, enough about America. The Soweto uprising is fertile ground for a movie. But after a while the blacks fade into the background and it's a movie about Concerned Liberal White Dude and his cheerful, resourceful Black Sidekick. Heck, it's practically Lethal Weapon II. Good performances all around, marred only slightly by the bad fake accents. In every scene she's in, Sarandon seems to hail from a different corner of the British Empire. But none of the ''name'' actors seems to be able to maintain a consistent accent throughout the movie. Hollywood should just let actors speak naturally and let the audience fill in the blanks. This movie was probably quite powerful in 1989, and probably angered many at the injustices still occurring in South Africa at the time. It's pretty easy to imagine devil's horns growing out of the wife's head even moreso than the police captain's. Nowadays it's more of a reminder at how one group of people can treat another group so poorly, based on little more than skin color. A lesson we too easily forget, it seems.

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful, murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." - OrwellDirected by Euzhan Palcy, "A Dry White Season" is set in 1970s South Africa. It stars Donald Sutherland as Ben Du Toit, a school teacher who remains blind to the realities of South Africa's system of Apartheid (which divided human beings into racial classifications and then denied many of them fundamental human rights). In denial about the treatment of his black friends and employees, Ben scoffs at the notion that White Power has been systematically murdering, killing, oppressing and exploiting. He remains cocooned in a world of privilege, adamant that everything is right in the world.Ben's naivety crumbles when he begins to investigate the murders of many black South Africans at the hands of a corrupt government and police force. With the help of a human rights attorney (Marlon Brando), he seeks justice.At its best, "A Dry White Season" details how adept Power is at covering up crimes, how such cover-ups rely on a kind of mass delusion, and how expert Power is at crushing those brave few who dare speak truth. The film's depictions of violence directed at blacks are also shockingly powerful, and it remains markedly better than similar films of the era ("Cry Freedom", "A World Apart"). Whilst "A Dry White Season" means well, though, the film is nevertheless mostly formulaic. Ben's your typical noir hero, locked in a quest designed solely to educate audiences. This lends the film a coddling, sanctimonious quality, everything neatly arranged and spelt out, our hands held along the way. Susan Sarandon co-stars as a local journalist.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. For Brando in a superior film about racial oppression, seek Pontecorvo's "Burn!"

This 1989 anti-Apartheid drama makes a half-hearted attempt to include some perspective from the black minority in South Africa, but once again the story is slanted entirely toward its white protagonist (upper class, liberal schoolteacher Donald Sutherland) and equally white villain (sadistic secret police chief Jurgen Prochnow). The whole thrust of the plot is in fact set up so that the greatest outrage is reserved for Sutherland's all too predictable death at the end of the film, and not for all the incidental violence in Soweto. If the scenario showed any brains or integrity the limited point of view might have easily been excused (cf 'A World Apart'), but the urgent moral issues are instead reduced to hack melodrama, wasting the talent of several respected actors (who should have known better) in flimsy two-dimensional roles. Sutherland fakes a Boer accent, Susan Sarandon (on screen for all of five minutes) fakes a British accent, and in the end only Marlon Brando manages to transcend the banality of the script, in a small and otherwise unnecessary role as Sutherland's lawyer.

This is a wonderful film, superbly acted by a great cast. Everyone is very understated, despite the understandable possibilities of over-acting. Donald Sutherland, Marlon Brando and the little boy are particularly outstanding - but one would really need to list all of the cast! The story shows the courage needed to stand up against the pressure of society when one (somewhat belatedly in our hero's case) discovers the injustices that are daily committed. While there is a lot of blood and gore, for once it simply reflects the situation. The Marlon Brando character is certainly wonderfully acted; his accent was so British it took us quite a little while to recognised him, despite his fairly unmistakable appearance! - we were watching this on television, knowing only that it took place in South Africa. My compliments to all involved!