Tsotsi
|
Our Price: $17.97 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.93 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Tsotsi
Movie Review: The Gradual Ascension to Manhood and Decency
Summary: 5 Stars
TSOTSI is a jewel of a film, well deserving the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 2005. Though set in Johannesburg, South Africa, the story is unfortunately so universal that the film could have been made in any country in the world: the lost children of abusive parents who survive life by relying on crime fill the streets of the poor neighborhoods of all major cities. TSOTSI is a tragedy but it carries a sense of hope and redemption that makes it a powerful statement indeed.
Tsotsi - translated, means 'Thug'- (Presley Chweneyagae) is an amoral youth who heads a gang of four: Boston (Mothusi Magano), Aap (Kenneth Nkosi), and Butcher (Zenzo Ngqobe). The gang steals and in general leads a life of dangerous existence, a life that abruptly alters when the gang robs and kills a gentle older man on the subway. They are on the run now and Tsotsi isolates himself further when he brutally beats Boston. He descends further into the abyss when he steals a car in the wealthy neighborhood, shooting the woman driving, and then discovering that in the back seat is an infant. His childhood flashes before his eyes and he finally shows a degree if buried decency when he takes the child with him as he abandons the stolen vehicle. Young and inexperienced in child care (his own childhood was riddled with hate and abuse), he seeks help from a young woman Miriam (Terry Pheto) who has an infant of her own (with no father) and serves as a wet nurse for the child. The manner in which Tsotsi gradually reconciles his bad life with his nascent response to recognizing kindness and salvation advances the story to its conclusion.
There is far more to the story than this short synopsis would indicate: there are levels of probing into the mind of the youthful criminal and the making of a gangster and the interaction among thieves and the changes that situations can alter that are beautifully written by Director Gavin Hood based on the Athol Fugard novel. The script is terse and much is left to the physical expressions of the characters, each acted to perfection by a stunning cast. The outsider living situation of these people is filmed with tremendous atmosphere and creativity by cinematographer Lance Gewer and the musical score by Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian serves to support the mood and action well. This is a tough movie to watch because of the reality of the issues: this is a superlative film to experience for the message it offers and for the wholly unforgettable acting of young Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto. In Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans with English subtitles. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 06
Movie Review: With Visible Heartstrings
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, I knew I was having my heart tugged, occasionally rather forcefully. Tsotsi, with a powerful performance by Presley Chweneyagae in the lead role, is a story about a young man who has become tougher than nails, and just as piercing in his hardened cruelty, and how within six days he finds some still tender places in his buried-deep heart.
There are no surprise twists in this plot, but I don't need surprises to enjoy a movie. I'm not even sure I bought into how the story played out. Could happen. Might not. It would probably be easier for me to imagine such a hardened young gangster tossing an infant into the ditch without a second thought. And still, I was willing to suspend my disbelief, perhaps also my own hardened cynicism, and follow the fascinating process of Tsotsi's peeling open heart.
After a spattering of brutal behavior to establish his deviancy - we see Tsotsi beat a friend to a bloody pulp, taunt a crippled man, steal a car, shoot a woman in the gut - he inadvertantly ends up kidnapping an infant boy along with a joy ride. There is a moment of indecision. Abandon the baby with the car? He almost walks away, doubles back, and tosses the baby in a shopping bag, taking him home. What follows are six days of gradual transformation. Diapering in newspaper is wincingly convincing. Needing sustenance for the child, he ends up holding a gun to a nursing young mother, forcing her to nurse his "adopted" child. When she asks the child's name, he thinks, then gives her the name by which he was known as a small boy: David. It is in this moment that the parallel is set. The baby becomes that damaged inner child that is Tsotsi, almost as if giving him a second chance to spend time with his own mother, to redeem a childhood that, as we see in various quick flashbacks, was near unbearably cruel at the hands of a sociopathic father.
I won't argue the predictability of the finish. I give the movie a prize, or perhaps more accurately to Presley Chweneyagae, for the sheer vulnerability and nakedness of his face and gestures so exposed in the last scene. He wordlessly expresses all that is the effect of abuse in one single moment on the screen. To be so vulnerable and exposed is the greatest courage of all. For that, heartstring manipulation aside, five stars.
Movie Review: I loved this movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a heart-wrenching movie about, basically, human decenty (and the lack thereof). It seems like it might be a simple movie about a young South African man (subtitled in English) who experiences a profound spiritual awakening upon connecting with an infant who changes his life.
Not so simple. Tsotsi is an AIDS orphan, as they are called in South Africa, and of which they are many. He HAS no ability to connect to other human beings, and his life of crime is a testimony to that. He cares about no one - no family, no friends, not even himself.
With his connection to the infant that he kidnaps (after shooting the baby's mother while stealing her car to get out of the rain), Tsotsi begins to have flashbacks to his own childhood and his own pain that begin to enlighten the viewer to what we are dealing with here.
When Tsotsi meets a young mother and forces her, at gunpoint (!) to "feed" the baby he doesn't even know how to feed, we realize how vacant this young man is. But he is beginning to care - enough to get the baby fed - he just doesn't know how.
We learn, through this interaction, the powerful gifts that mothers provide for their children in nurture and connection that Tsotsi has never known. He is fascinated, moved, pained, awed - as should we all be.
In time, Tsotsi makes the decision to return the baby to its mother, who is still alive, although she will never walk again. Tsotsi realizes what he has taken from them all. He will experience the loss of everything he has never known as he lets this baby go, a baby he has given his own name, David, for as long as he kept him. David, a name he never shared with anybody else, ever. He is beginning to let the world in.
One poignant scene involves a visit to where David lived as a child, where other AIDS orphans, growing in number, tell him they can't take the baby because THEY have nothing to feed him. The scene with the children is where the heart-wrenching tale begins to pivot.
Highly recommended.
Rethinking Aids
Movie Review: Weapon in one hand...baby in another
Summary: 5 Stars
Set in shantytown of South Africa, a 19-year old gang member examines another side of his life, the other side of humanity as he cares for an infant.
Tsotsi was a crude gang member are at the height of destruction, killing without a conscience. In a carjacking, Tsotsi shockingly discovers and is left with an infant separated from his mother, injured by Tsotsi. He innocently attempts to hold on to the baby, tenderly, sweet, caring and vulnerable in the midst of gang activity. It is this time that the ganster undergoes a remarkable awakening. The actor Presley Cheweneyagae was outstanding, revealing every emotion on his face.
The film directed by Gavin Hood is based on a novel by Athol Fugard. It has minimal dialogue, which means the viewer relies on descriptive settings, perfect transitions, emotional faces, close-ups, realistic actions and most of all touching the viewer. It's clear to see why this got the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and numerous other awards.
Features!
The DVD subtitles are easily legible, and as I mentioned, there isn't a lot of dialogue, which means we can't lose too much in translation like other films.
The Making of Tsotis and Audio Commentary
Also included is an English speaking version of the making of Tsotsi. Excellent audio commentary is informative, insightful and educational with alternative endings.
Don't miss the extraordinary short film
What is included is a short film, also by Gavin Hood, that is so unique in that there are no speaking roles, we rely only on what we see, what we interpret with only a few noises. The film is the Shopkeeper, where an old man runs a small store that has repeatedly been broken into. See what he does next.
Soundtrack - the music toward the end!
It's not the rap music I noticed, but what was so soothing, spiritual, and haunting was the music at the end of the film, subtle but powerful. ....Excellent film. Rizzo
Movie Review: Wounded
Summary: 5 Stars
Though "Tsotsi" is set in South Africa and the milieu, to the American eye, is as exotic as a film set on the Moon, the concerns are Universal: the loss or disconnect of ones parents, the longing for a parent's love and caring, a governments lack of concern for a citizens civil rights.
Tsotsi (Presley Chweneygae) is a hood, a young man who kills and steals without any apparent concern for what he is doing and why he is doing it. His face and eyes radiate mostly hate and disdain. He is psychically and emotionally detached and removed. Then, one day he steals a luxury car, shoots the woman to whom it belongs and realizes, once he drives the car away, that there is an infant in the back seat.
This beautiful, innocent child forces Tsotsi ( really named David) to face the loss of his Mother, the uncaring, drunken non-concern of his father and the deep seated, mostly ignored or glossed , psychically ignored feelings with which he hasn't been able to deal.
Director and screenwriter Gavin Hood (adapted from a novel by Athol Fugard) has fashioned a traditionally structured film and peopled it with non-traditional characters and it works because we can all relate to Tsotsi's dilemma. And it doesn't hurt to have Presley Chweneygae as your lead character. The first time we see Tsotsi on screen he looks at the camera with his huge black eyes: eyes that are filled with superiority, despair, disgust and hurt. When he first sees the infant his eyes and face fill with wonder and awe at the utter helplessness and innocence. It is this disparity and friction that makes the film crackle with fire and well observed life.
"Tsotsi" is not a revolutionary film like say the similarly themed "Children of God" but it is a very emotionally effective and socially aware one and Presley Chweneyagae's performance is so natural and truthful that it makes you wince with recognition and empathy.