Synopsis
The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.
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Cast
- Tim RobbinsNic Vos
- Derek LukePatrick Chamusso
- Bonnie MbuliPrecious Chamusso
- Mncedisi ShabanguZuko September
- Tumisho MashaObadi
- Sithembiso KhumaloSixpence
- Terry PhetoMiriam
- Michele BurgersAnna Vos
- Mpho LovingaJohnny Piliso
- Jay AnsteyKatie Vos
Recommendations
- 83
Christian Science Monitor
Philip Noyce's anti-apartheid drama is tense and thoughtful, if somewhat marred by Hollywood-style thrills. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
With the same affinity for stories of culture clash he showed in "The Quiet American" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence," director Phillip Noyce embraces the tale with gusto. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Comparisons to "Hotel Rwanda" make sense up to a point - both feature heroes who have the scales removed from their eyes - but "Fire" is no tearjerker, and here the story of Chamusso's conversion serves mainly as prologue to the main plot, a history-tinted cat-and-mouse policier in which he will attempt to finish the job he was wrongly accused of starting. - 67
Austin Chronicle
It's always odd to see Robbins, a political activist in his own right, playing at villainy, but here he descends into the role so thoroughly that the lopsided smile becomes less a notation of cockeyed boyishness than a treacherous Cheshire smirk. - 60
Variety
Stories of resistance to oppression will never become obsolete, but this feels like a picture that should have been made a long time ago. - 60
L.A. Weekly
The less rosy message of Catch a Fire is that aggression breeds aggression. - 50
Village Voice
In the end, Catch a Fire plays like some weird hybrid on the crazy-quilt filmography of Phillip Noyce, which includes small productions made in his native Australia and the Sharon Stone sexcapade "Sliver." What it's definitely not is the standard-issue movie about apartheid; there's no white protagonist, no pale-faced hero riding in on his high horse to save the oppressed black man. - 50
Chicago Tribune
The horrors of apartheid deserve a better treatment than this.
