Sir Richard Attenborough came from a radical family and he left home at the age of seventeen to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His parents hated any kind of racial or religious intolerance and he grew up with the same feeling. They were involved in bringing Basque refugee children out of Spain during the Civil War and persecuted Jewish families out of Germany under Hitler's autocracy. The thought that a nation, through its parliament, could legislate laws which relegated one race of the community to an inferior position seemed inconceivable and obscene to Attenbo

The panning camera shots show setting, more than personality. It shows the unity the blacks have, where as the whites were never seen in large unified crowds which was biased. The two scenes where there was panning shots to show unity were the football game and Biko's funeral. The panning shots gives a broader view of the way the crowd and footballers react to Biko's' speech, and how the black South Africans mourn Biko's death and, at the same time, celebrate his life. The zooming shots onto his face imprint on his coffin at the funeral are used to bring the audience back to Biko and the reason why everyone is gathered there.

Cry Freedom is propaganda thinly disguised as a documentary. There were certain elements of a documentary but because of Attenborough's intentions, the film techniques used and the way it was structured, the substantial evidence of bias throughout the film, and the many different viewpoints ignored, the film is propaganda.

There were names of places and dates teletyped onto the screen when important events happened; for example, when Biko died. These words sounded like they had been typed by a typewriter.

Attenborough used the Soweto massacre of school children as the climax. This is not in chronological order as the massacre occurred eighteen months earlier in June 1976. This gives the impression that the massacre is coinciding with Woods's escape. However it was just Attenborough's way of reminding the viewer that the film was about apartheid and not Donald Woods. The Soweto massacre is also used as the climax to make the audience feel angry about the events and situation, and to cause the audience to feel there needs to be a change of laws.

Soon afterwards, de Wet and his men vandalise the black community centre. Woods complains to the Police Minister, Kruger, who has always said he will fight police illegality, and promises to look into matters. Instead, he sent police to harass Woods, demanding to know the name of the black witness who had seen de Wet at the church. Woods refuses to name the witness and consequently is charged for withholding a witness's name. He avoided conviction because his lawyer found mistakes with the wording of the charge.

Some topics in this essay:
Cry Freedom, South Africans, Africans Additionally, Minister Kruger, Woods Biko, De Wet, South Africa, Dr Ramphele, Jews English, Nationalist Party, black consciousness, cry freedom, south africa, de wet, community centre, south africans, soweto massacre, substantial evidence bias, black south, zanempilo clinic, towards black, black south africans, cry freedom propaganda, film south africa, events happening film,