Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

skeptic skeptical First off, I was seriously skeptical about Idris Elba starring as Nelson Mandela, given the radical disparity in their appearance—at least judging by the well-known images of Mandela. Of course, most of us have not seen what he looked like as a young man, but it just seemed highly unlikely that it would be anything like the man who so successfully portrayed Stringer Bell in The Wire. To my amazement, some fantastic cosmetic work was done on Elba so that, at least in his later years, he bore some resemblance to Mandela. All in all, I was very impressed with Idris Elba's performance, even in the early part of the story, when he looked more like Stringer Bell. Maybe I should not be surprised, given that I have yet to encounter a case of bad acting on his part. As for the depiction of Mandela's life, the opening did a good job of showing how and why Mandela became involved in terrorist actions (vandalism), and the ending did a good job of showing how, after a few setbacks, he finally managed to quell violence. However, there was a huge jump from asking for trousers in the Robben Island prison to suddenly being invited to serve as the leader of Black South Africans and bring an end to the uncontrollable violence in the streets. There probably should have been a bit more included from the eighteen- year period of Mandela's imprisonment on the island. His writing? His other attempts at reform? Obviously, he did not become singled out for having succeeded in securing long pants for the "boys" or for having obediently broken rocks with the rest of the chain gang. What did Mandela do to garner the attention of the white South African leaders? No clue is given in this version of the story.Notwithstanding the missing details from the prison period, I consider this film to be a relative success. The acting was great all around, and the story shows the major events needed to make sense of Mandela's life. I would definitely recommend that anyone who is ignorant of this great man's story watch the movie. Obviously, this is not a scholarly biography, and I am confused about some of the reviewers who are comparing it to that, finding fault for it not being what it is not and could never be. There are limits to what can be done in even a long film (pushing 3 hours), and given those constraints, I feel that history has been responsibly represented, showing both sides of what happened—the fear on the part of the whites, how it turned into brutality; and the anger on the part of the blacks, how it turned into desire for revenge.

MR T R Barnes For years now we've wondered if Steven Seagal will ever again achieve the heights of Under Siege 2: Dark territory. Well put your pants back on because in 'Mandela: Long walk to Freedom', Seagal is back to his sofa-faced best. Synopsis: Steven Seagal plays Mandela, a ship's cook framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to jail by the south African rugby team. Mandela (Seagal) is furious about this – so furious in fact that he comes dangerously close to changing his facial expression. What they don't realise is that Mandela used to be a highly decorated Navy Seal. Mandela engages in an epic battle for the freedom of the nation, eventually forcing the incumbent head of state and South African Rugby captain President Botha into a show down in a multi story car park. Botha gives it the big bananas, but ultimately is no match for the flappy hands of the great Seagal – eventually succumbing to a Judo open handed neck jab behind the ear which sends the unfortunate racist plummeting through a glass ceiling into a spike factory. Boring? A little. But sometimes that's the price you pay for historical accuracy. 5 stars.

grantss Great movie on a great man.Details the life of Nelson Mandela, who fought to end apartheid, spent 27 years in prison for doing so, and became the first democratically-elected President of South Africa. Shows his early days, when his aspirations were different, his change of focus, his incarceration, his negotiations with the government, his release, the transition period and his inauguration. It's not just a simple blow-by-blow cold fact biopic. It shows the humility and grace of the man. Without his level-headedness South Africa's transition to democracy and history thereafter would not have been a peaceful one. It would have gone the way of many African countries in post-colonial/white rule and descended into anarchy and civil war.The relationship with his wife, Winnie, is a prominent theme. Initially it starts out as a love story, and an interesting aside, but it later develops into a "what is and what could have been" comparison. Him representing the path that South Africa took, thanks to him, and her the path to destruction.Superb performance by Idris Elba in the lead role. He got the voice and accent down pat too.Good support from Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela.

jpdhadfield i read the book, the long walk to freedom,over ten years ago, in almost one sitting, and i can still remember most of it, so when i watched the film,i wasn't disappointed, Idris Elba does a wonderful job.as always. i wont write long paragraphs, as who reads them, i know i don't, but if your interested in Nelson Mandela, this is the film for you, it covers all of his life, the struggle against apartheid, his prison time and freedom i would recommend this film to anybody,it has everything a great story should have, some parts i was in tears, almost sobbing, others i was so happy, i could have shouted out loud 'free Nelson Mandela', an amazing man who sacrificed a large part of his life to South Afrika.