Stander
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Movie Reviews of Stander
Movie Review: Stander
Summary: 5 Stars
Stander was amazing in my opinion. I actually never heard of Thomas Jane until i watched '61' he played a good mickey mantle and then i caught 'the punisher' remake with him, also very good. Searched Thomas Jane movies and found Stander for $3. Had to see it especially because it was a true story which interests me.Movie Review: Tom Jane does a superb job in this thrilling and crackling true story
Summary: 4 Stars
Stander was a very good film about the real-life exploits of Andre Stander, Lee McCall and Allan Heyl who were known collectively as The Stander Gang. The Stander Gang was well-known for their daring and reckless bank robberies in their homeland of South Africa. The film stars Tom Jane (The Punisher, Deep Blue Sea) as the title character with Dexter Fletcher (Band of Brothers and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and David Patrick O'Hara (Braveheart) rounding out the rest of the Stander Gang.
The film starts off introducing Andre Stander as a highly decorated member of the South African Police Force in the late 1970's and the beginning of the anti-apartheid movement. It shows Andre Stander's growing disgust and disenchantment in his government's racist apartheid policies and his own role in enforcing it. After a violent and brutal break-up of an anti-apartheid protest gathering where Stander kills a protestor, the film begins to move into meat of the story. Stander's disenchantment with the government causes him to commit bank robberis in audacious fashion as a way to rebel and defy the very state he has sworn to protect and serve.
The scenes where Stander commits these bank robberies were shot well and showed just how daring Andre Stander really was in his exploits. There's even a sequence where he returns to the scene of his most recent crime to investigate the robbery. A robbery he just committed just hours before during his lunchtime. These scenes and the later ones when he's joined by two other bank robbers shows Tom Jane at his finest. I think many would be hard-pressed not to think Jane's performance as a South African, accent and all, wasn't authentic. His charisma ruled throughout the film and was mostly evident through the many bank robbing sequences. He truly gave Andre Stander the air of a Robin Hood character who, despite his criminal acts, became a sort of folk antihero.
The second half of the film details the exploits of Stander after his incarceration for his bank robberies while a captain of the South African Police Force. It's here that we meet the rest of Stander's Gang as he recruits fellow inmate and outlaws Lee McCall and Allan Heyl. Even the way Stander engineers his escape from the work-prison he has been sent to shows his daring in thumbing his nose at the state and the police he used to be a part of. Dexter Fletcher was very good as the twitchy and less stable Lee McCall whose nerves begin to fray the bolder and bolder the gangs bank robberies become. David Patrick O'Hara was also good as the very professional bank robber Allan Heyl. Heyl didn't have the charisma that Stander had, but he was the rock which kept the robberies from spiraling out of their control. It was great to see O'Hara in another strong role. Some might recognize him as the scene-stealing Stephen, the Irish rebel who joins William Wallace's fight against the English during Mel Gibson's Braveheart.
The rest of the film was pretty much one bank robbery after the other with the Stander Gang always one step ahead of the police task force put together to capture them. In a twist of fate, the task force was headed by Stander's former friend in the police force Cor Van Deverter whose intimate knowledge of Stander's tactics and thought-processes helps in slowly closing the noose around the gang. There's abit of a repitition in the robberies and the getaways, but they serve an important purpose of slowly building up the Stander Gang's folkhero status amongst the population. It also showed the effect it had on some of the members of the gang. As popular and infamous the gang had become they were still outlaws who knew that sooner or later their luck would run out and they'd either be put back into prison or killed outright. For some it was the latter and for others the former.
Throughout the film, one could sense that some of the motivations behind Andre Stander's actions as a bank robber was to assuage his guilt over the sanctioned acts of brutality he had to perform to protect the apartheid government of his nation. The film and the story being told was almost a full-lenght film of Stander's attempt to make up for his past transgressions. And what better way to do this than use the system of the state against itself. He himself points out that a white man could get away with anything when most of the policemen in the city were called away to deal with an emergency regarding the black majority population. Stander realizes this to be true and his second career as a bank robber was born. The film only hints at him being a very good policeman, but the majority of the film shows just how much better he was as a criminal.
The film was expertly directed by Bronwen Hughes and as said earlier had strong performances from all the main leads in the film. The story rarely slowed down to the point that the story lost its direction. Every scene always led to the next part of the story being told until the very bitter end. Stander was a very good film anchored by a fine performance from Tom Jane. The film showed a brief glimpse into South Africa's apartheid past and how one individual's decision to defy the state led to a brief, but daring life of a modern-day Robin Hood.
Movie Review: "You know, a white man could get away with anything today"
Summary: 4 Stars
Stander is such a bizarre and incomprehensible story, that I watched this movie pretty much in disbelief. To think that a white South African policeman and riot enforcer would have some sort of epiphany and start robbing banks after he participates in quenching a violent and deadly riot is a bit of a stretch. But the film is reportedly based on a true story, which makes it even more weird, and while its good in places, it never really gets to the heart of Standers motivations for doing what he did. Is he a sociopath? Did the killing of innocent black men make him have some kind of breakdown? Is he some kind of modern day Robin Hood? Or is he all of these things? This viewer was never really sure.
Set in South Africa during the terrible days of apartheid, Andre Stander (a really sexy Thomas Jane), is the son of an Afrikaans general, and is the youngest police captain in the Johannesburg Police Force. We first meet him when he is about to remarry is ex-wife Bekkie (Deborah Kara Unger, terrific as usual). They have just spent a honeymoon on a beach frolicking in the water naked, and they're both obviously hot for each other again. For much of the first 20 minutes, we witness them having lots of whispery, shadowy sex with Stander showing off his tight, muscled body.
Stander is employed to oversee a peaceful demonstration by the black population, but thanks to some trigger-happy cops the protest turns violent and Stander kills an unarmed man. Determined to seek repentance and realizing that the white system is too busy trying to stamp out black liberation than fight real crime, he's encouraged by his loving father (Marius Weyers) to resign from the force.
Determined to expose the shortcomings in the white authoritarian system, Stander begins to rob banks. He gradually becomes more audacious with each robbery, using a variety of different inventive disguises, until he's eventually caught. In jail he meets Allan Heyl (David Patrick O'Hara) and Dexter Fletcher (Lee McCall), and the three of them conspire to break out of prison, eventually going on a crime wave that is unprecedented in South African history.
Apart from the visually stunning opening sequence, with its fascinating overhead vistas of Johannesburg, that contrast the opulent suburban white communities with horrendous black shantytowns, the film - perhaps unwisely - disposes of any overt political analysis. Instead, Stander concentrates on the friendship that develops between the three men, and their efforts to outwit the ever-increasing machinations of the South African police. There are lots of car chases and bank robberies as Stander, Allan, and Dexter become cross-country buddies and construct even more daring and enterprising robberies. How Stander eventually outwits the authorities is one of the highlights of the film.
Thomas Jane is absolutely terrific as Stander. He carries this movie totally, from the intensely dramatic to the quietly intimate. And while sometimes his South African accent is hard to understand, he still brings an enormously powerful and earthy presence to the screen. All the other players are good, especially Deborah Kara Unger who just can't emotionally handle Stander's divisive lifestyle anymore.
The film looks good, coloured in heavy yellows and browns and the period costumes help to expertly recreate the era of 1974. But the film often looks rather cheap and cheesy and, at times, it's terribly hard to follow, with short small scenes confusingly interspersed together. Stander was obviously a complex man of contradictions, and also a man who liked to hang out naked. And since he ended up keeping most of the money he stole, I'm not sure whether this film did a good enough job of showing whom Stander really was. Mike Leonard March 05.
Movie Review: Deserves to be noticed, exciting and intriguing, based on true story
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on a true story of a South African cop who has a change of heart after a bungled riot control operation, this film goes against many of the stereotypes of films based on "reality" but which are, in fact, highly fictionalized versions of the truth, with a bit of truth thrown in.
The story of Stander, former cop turned bank robber, stands apart because it is believable and generally compelling. You can't help but watch to find out how his story ends, what will happen and WHY he does what he does. The film doesn't reveal all but that is fine. Perhaps there weren't any absolute answers as to WHY Stander did what he did. Perhaps his behavior mystified him as much as anyone (the film hints at that).
I can see why this one didn't reach more people, as the accents can make it hard to understand some of the dialogue. There are also some slower parts that are necessary for understanding Stander but which viewers might find wearisome (I did not).
This is far above most of the "highly acclaimed" movies you'll find at the theatre or your local DVD/video/game store. It is well worth seeking out, especially if you like something with plenty of action and suspense but which is also a bit different.
Movie Review: COMPELLING CRIME DRAMA
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on a true story, STANDER is the story of a frustrated cop who becomes a bank robber, robbing over 25 banks while a cop, and then many more after he escapes from prison and enlists the aid of two fellow escapees in his heists. Set in the smiley face days of the 70s, STANDER works due to the remarkable performance by Thomas Jane, who has been critically lambasted for some of his work in "The Punisher" and "Dreamcatcher." In this film, Jane captures the frustration, guilt, and determination of Andre Stander. This antihero actually wins his audience's sympathy as he struggles to elude the law and expunge his own guilt over the murder of an African rebel. STANDER is a different film and even with its tragic conclusion, stays in your mind.