Fighting for what you believe in

So we saw the new Nelson Mandela film the other day, 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' and it was great. True to the amazing story with an amazing cast, this film is essential viewing for everyone. Can I start off by saying what a shame it is that Nelson Mandela never got to see this film; it displayed the story of his life and his struggles in a most beautiful touching and truthful way. Mandela did get to see a short clip of the film while it was still in production - an end scene where Idris Elba is walking in the fields of his birth place - and Mandela actually believed it was himself being shown. Neither he nor us could believe the performance given by Elba, it was brilliant. I like that this film will bring to life his story and enable younger people to learn about Mandela as I feel it is important for the sake of mankind for people to remember what he did for the world. My one complaint may be that after Mandela is released from prison, the film was perhaps 5 minutes too long. But apart from that, an amazing film bringing to life one of the best stories of our time.

The next film we watched was of a similar theme - fighting and sacrifice for your cause. The film was 1953's 'Seven Samurai', a Japanese epic adventure film (that according to IMDb is the 18th best film of all time) about a group of poor villagers who hire seven samurai fighters to protect their village from a bunch of bandits, who annually rob the village each year of its harvest. It is as interesting and entertaining as it sounds. Although over 60 years old and the language being Japanese, the film really hadn't aged that much. At a run time of over 3 hours I was kind of dreading it, but I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were all very unique and I enjoyed their backstories and the film was also surprisingly funny in parts, while remaining an emotional and touching story. Rosie didn't enjoy it at all although she gave up after 40 minutes. We may rewatch again soon so she can give it another chance as I felt she missed out. Maybe slightly overrated due to its cult status (I really enjoyed it but wouldn't say it is one of the best films of all time), this is an enjoyable way for a film fan to spend 3 hours.

Ollie :)
(with a few sentences by Rosie)