Very disappointing...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Donald Sutherland plays a well-respected white man living in apartheid-era South Africa. He is a famous ex-rugby player--with a happy life. But, when one of his servants comes to him to complain about police violence towards his son, slowly Sutherland is forced to confront the evil within his society. You see, this caning is only the beginning--soon far, far worse happens to these people and Sutherland refuses to look away and pretend it isn't happening. Eventually, Sutherland is so enraged by the police brutalities that he seeks legal advice--he wants justice and won't accept that there is different justice for blacks and whites. When the case comes to court, it soon becomes VERY apparent that it is futile. Despite overwhelming evidence showing how brutally the police murdered one of their detainees, it was ruled a suicide. With seemingly nothing he can do, what will he do next--especially when his own family just want him to drop it? It's funny, but there was a LOT of hubbub about Marlon Brando in the film. While he totally dominated the portion he was in, it was a relatively small role. I really had to feel sorry for Sutherland, as he was very good in the film but got almost no notice since Brando is an iconic figure and so much attention went towards him.As far as the film goes, it's excellent in every way--well acted, directed and written. It's a very compelling and sad film--and fortunately it's also about what is finally past. Well worth seeing.By the way, this is not a major complaint, but twice in the film if you look closely you can see supposedly dead people breathing. The first is a little girl who is shot and perhaps she really could have continued breathing for a few seconds. But, the guy inside the coffin is clearly supposed to be 100% dead but you can see his chest moving. These goofs should have been caught but don't really detract from the film.I am going to visit South Africa in a few weeks. As an American I naturally know very little about the place, but to get myself in the mood, I am watching as many films about the country as I can. Like most of these films, "A Dry White Season" is about South Africa during the apartheid era. I wish I knew of some other films (other than "Invictus") which talked more about South Africa as it is today.

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.

It took the cause and message of A Dry White Season for Marlon Brando to leave his self-imposed exile in Tahiti to come back to the screen, albeit in a small supporting role. Still the cause was one of the most remarkable in the 20th Century, the eventually successful opposition to the white apartheid government of the Union of South Africa.A Dry White Season was originally a novel concerned with the aftermath of the famous Soweto Massacre when South African troops fired on a protest of black Bantu children being forced to learn in Afrikaans the language of the oppressor as Desmond Tutu so eloquently put it.The son of the gardener at Donald Sutherland's estate is killed in Soweto and his body is not returned. After which the gardener Winston Ntshona is picked up by the special branch of the South African Police for asking too many questions and later he dies in prison the result of a suicide which no one with a functioning brain believes. At that point Sutherland decides to intervene himself.Sutherland plays a history teacher in a white only school and as he learns about what's going on and starts asking the questions he dare not ask before even to himself. His radicalization is total, but it costs him dear, his wife Janet Suzman and his daughter Sussanah Harker leave him, but his young son Rowen Elnes sticks with dad.It's not that he doesn't gain a few new friends, African National Congress organizer Zakes Mokae, crusading journalist Susan Sarandon, and human rights attorney Marlon Brando. But he also gains a bitter and malevolent enemy in Special Branch Captain Jurgen Prochnow who apparently does damage control for the government. That includes outright murder of suspected opposition to the apartheid government.Every actor worth his salt loves a courtroom scene and Marlon Brando might have even come back for that in this film as well as the anti- apartheid cause. He got the film's only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Denzel Washington for Glory. I suspect given Marlon's history with Oscar folks were reluctant to vote for him.The film really belongs to star Donald Sutherland though and I think it a pity he wasn't given any Oscar nomination for this fine film with an eternal message about freedom.

Euzhan Palcy is a great director. She has broken many barriers for Black Female Filmmakers. Most of her work has been political with strong impact, as this film is. Never before have we seen such a story told through the eyes of a black woman and done so well that she received critical acclaim.I have to disagree with Mr. Trevor Moses that this was an awful film. Also, Mr. Moses get your facts straight. The director of this film Ms. Palcy was not a racist hence the amazing cast. And one last thing these actors did this movie for almost nothing, including Robert Redford who did it for FREE, all because they saw her vision. FYI check out www.euzhanpalcy.com