This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's 1980 South Africa. Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) is a coalfield oil refinery foreman trying to keep his head down. When the refinery is bombed, Afrikaner anti-terrorist Colonel Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) investigates. Patrick is falsely imprisoned and tortured along with many others including his wife. He was actually with another woman that night. Eventually they are released. Patrick is angered into joining the ANC and sabotage the refinery himself.This is a good movie because it shows the reason behind Nic Vos. He's not a simple monster which is the easy way to go. Tim Robbins' reserved mannerism keeps him from being a cartoon villain. Instead he is a family man doing evil to protect his world. The investigation isn't unreasonable but the method is brutal. This movie shows how men with reasonable intention can descend into evil brutality.

When watching this movie, one should keep the following quote in mind: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Because although it is true, that the movie covers a sad and tragic phase in South African history, a lot of innocent white South Africans were also seriously injured and killed by "Freedom Fighters" - the movie should have focused on that perhaps as well, underlining the problem, that the ANC had a policy of not harming innocents, but this was almost never the case - however Chamusso tried to follow this policy, (that was depicted well in the movie) and was jailed, because he was careful not to harm innocents.But Chamusso's quote at the end, "That the white people were forced to abolish Apartheid", is not really true. A national vote was held 1992 in South Africa - "the referendum" - and the majority of the white people voted for the abolishment of Apartheid; so in the end black AND white South Africans made the peaceful transition in South Africa possible. So the end of the movie - which is hastily tacked on - seems bitter and resentful, but historically it all turned out well after all. All in all, the movie is good for people who have not heard about Apartheid before - or even about South Africa. But Americans can certainly learn from this story, to achieve a better social cohesion between white and coloured people in the US.

This film didn't have the attention it would have deserved, at least in Europe (no attention at all in Italy..) but it's quite riveting. Elevated and empowered by Tim Robbin's and Derek Luke's performances "Catch a fire" has the right impact and vibrancy. It should raise important political questions in a world obsessed with terrorism and it's also filled with well - staged action scenes. The apartheid era is properly described and the social history developing in this context is certainly remarkable, though not flawless. Compared to other productions dealing with the same subject this one offers a perspective a bit different and more mature and ends up with a surprising forgiveness

Catch a Fire is overly formulaic and doesn't have anything new to say about the apartheid. But it does look good and it's well acted and slickly directed. The film shares many plot similarities to other Joseph Campbell influenced narratives like the Star Wars movies or Braveheart. The film is set in South Africa in 1980. The film's reluctant hero is Patrick Chamusso who works as a foreman at the Secunda oil refinery. Patrick has a good life: he owns a car, has a beautiful wife and in his spare time, he coaches a local boys soccer team.The freedom fighters / terrorists of the African National Congress (ANC) are fighting to overthrow South Africa's white-led government. As a black man Patrick suffers the occasional humiliation at the hands of the country's police but he doesn't complain or get involved in politics. The film doesn't dwell on the fact that Patrick is a refugee from the Mozambique civil war which ended in 1992, with over 900,000 dying from fighting and starvation.In many Hollywood films white South Africans are often portrayed as evil and sadistic. Tim Robbins plays Nic Vos / Darth Vader a colonel in the country's anti-terrorism police. Vos is shown as a devoted husband and father but his job is to capture terrorists. After the ANC plants a bomb at the refinery, Patrick comes under suspicion and is arrested. Patrick is a womanizer and his initial alibi is exposed as a lie. He is beaten-up but when his wife is tortured he becomes angry and seeks revenge. Although found to be innocent and released, Patrick travels to Mozambique and joins an ANC terrorism school. He returns to South Africa and blows up the refinery. Patrick plays an unenthusiastic warrior who helps overthrow an evil regime. He is arrested again, and spends over ten years at the Robben Island prison with Nelson Mandela. Most recent films about Africa paint it in a negative light. They show corrupt, genocidal hellholes, child soldiers, wide-scale barbarism, anarchy and starvation. What happened in South Africa now seems relatively low key by comparison. The film also fails to shock because TV shows like 24 seem to condone torture in terrorist interrogations. With the present day reality of prisons like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo the actions of Vos and his men seem almost tame. Overall, it's a well-made movie.