Escape from Pretoria (2020) Review!!!

Synopsis – Based on the real-life prison break of two political captives, Escape From Pretoria is a race-against-time thriller set in the tumultuous apartheid days of South Africa.

My Take – While there are plenty of prison break dramas out there, this one has been in my watch-list ever since its first trailer hit the net, mainly because it is based on a true story and has Daniel Radcliffe, who just had a release in the form of the crazy Guns Akimbo merely weeks ago, portraying Tim Jenkin, a member of a group of white South African men who were imprisoned for protesting against Apartheid in the 1970s, and followed it up by staging a daring escape.

Getting straight to the point, as far entries go into the genre, this film from director Francis Annan is actually pretty solid. While the film is highly flawed in some areas, it definitely does possesses a good entertainment value, as it tightly made as an old-school B-like jailbreak thriller just with a successful execution of genre mechanics, that provides legitimate thrills and keeps you excited throughout, as you follow the trio of men on their quest for freedom.

With an intelligent central performance from Radcliffe, who uses his physical smallness to great effect in conveying Jenkin’s vulnerability and strung-out nerves, this is a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat but also reminds you that good prison-set films don’t come out all that often.

Based on the 2003 book Inside Out: Escape from Pretoria Prison by Tim Jenkin, the story, set in 1978 South Africa, follows Tim Jenkin (Daniel Radcliffe), a white male ANC activist who along with his companion Stephen Lee (Daniel Webber), are sentenced to 12 and 8 years imprisonment for causing chaos and distress in the public by using leaflet bombs, a harmless set of devices which explode and throw leaflets into the air highlighting the atrocities of apartheid.

Reprimanded to Pretoria Central Prison to carry out their sentences, upon arrival the two find themselves immediately facing resistance from guards and other inmates as they are both considered as race traitors due to their political stands. While they find safe alliance in the form of Denis Goldberg (Ian Hart), a famous political activist, who is serving 22 years, Jenkin especially is not supportive of his idea of quietly carrying out their sentence. Seeking to mark a powerful political statement, Jenkins convinces Lee that the best way to do so is to carry out a prison break.

Though his plan is absurd, it is simple. He will make wooden keys, copied from the originals by observing the guards using the keys each day and then when the time comes he’ll use those keys to unlock every door in the prison and walk out the front entrance. They’re soon also joined by Leonard Fontaine (Mark Leonard Winter), a French prisoner, tired of the injustice handed out to him and the fact he’s only allowed to see his young son once a year, who despite considering the idea crazy at first, agrees to make the desperate attempt, no matter how long it takes.

Though covered deep by the shadows of countless other prison films, from The Shawshank Redemption to Escape from Alcatraz to The Great Escape, hanging over it throughout, this film does enough to make its own mark by how it shows the characters’ admirable adherence to their beliefs and fierce determination to escape their unjust incarceration. To keep that element constant, here, director Francis Annan uses a straightforward approach to tell his tale.

Other than having sequences were inmates sit around and talk about their lives and what led them to prison, the film focuses almost exclusively on the escape and the preparation for it. And ratchets up enough tension when Jenkin loses keys, snaps keys, or struggles to find a hiding spot before the guards spot him, the soundtrack is heavy with panicked breathing and the scenes tightly edited to make you feel as jittery as possible.

While the character of Leonard gets to have a powerful conversation with his son, giving his fictional character reason and the ability to represent all the individuals who lost their families fighting for their beliefs, the film ultimately boils down to a lot of variations on the same sequence, a desperate game of hide and seek, but they’re all executed very well. That is of course, until the final release.

Surprisingly the film is even funny in places, providing some much-needed yet appropriate comic relief, mainly in the form of characters bickering with each other during the escape. It also helps that director Francis Annan focuses on the strange mechanics of escaping without major political speeches. The accuracy of these men’s causes has been presented as self-evident. Although their internal debate is interesting, watching the prisoners wander around the corner is less exciting than trying not to get caught.

However, with the focus being on atmosphere, excitement and genre mechanics, it’s a pity there’s little character-work around them. We learn only the bare minimum about Jenkin and his motivations. His life before prison is largely a mystery, while his colleague Stephen Lee is gets to be nothing more than a glorified extra, despite being second on the bill. For the most part, the film works well, but it’s a shame director Francis Annan didn’t take more time to dig into the ordinary men who made this extraordinary escape.

However, the performances make up for that. Daniel Radcliffe continues to distance himself from Harry Potter, sporting a respectable accent as Tim Jenkin, with a captivating performance of steely conviction and believably nervous disposition. Though he gets very little dialogue to work with, but his face tells us everything we need to know.

While his character is wholly underwritten, Daniel Webber does well as the impassioned cohort. In other roles, Mark Leonard Winter, Ian Hart, Nathan Page and Grant Piro also get to shine. On the whole, ‘Escape from Pretoria’ is a compelling and ultimately thrilling prison break drama uplifted by a yet another superb Radcliffe performance.