A Dry White Season (1989)

It's 1976. Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) is a liberal South African schoolmaster and a former rugby star. He is shocked by the police beating of his gardener Gordon's son but does nothing. When the kids gather to protest the teaching of Afrikaans, the police reply with violence. Gordon's son goes missing. Ben, in his sheltered life, tries to help and the police tells him that he's dead. Ben again advises Gordon to leave it alone. Gordon continues to investigate and gets arrested. Captain Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow) is the man in charge of torturing Gordon. Gordon's wife brings lawyer Stanley Makhaya (Zakes Mokae). The police claims that Gordon committed suicide. Stanley brings Ben to the Soweto township and shown the truth of his torture. Melanie Bruwer (Susan Sarandon) is a newspaper reporter. Civil rights lawyer Ian McKenzie (Marlon Brando) relents to Ben and takes on the case.

Director

Euzhan Palcy

Stars: Donald Sutherland, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae, Marlon Brando, Susan Sarandon, Jurgen Prochnow and Michael Gambon as the Magistrate.

Music by David Grusin

Marlon Brando decreed that his lines be audio-transmitted to him via a closed-circuit receiver earplug that he would wear in his ear, which Brando claimed was for artistic reasons.

With this movie, writer and director Euzhan Palcy became the first Black woman to direct a major Hollywood movie.

Source novelist André Brink's (source) novel, "A Dry White Season" (1979), was banned in his native homeland of South Africa.

In the court scene, McKenzie (Marlon Brando) was supposed to insult the magistrate and be removed from the courtroom by two guards. Writer and Director Euzhan Palcy did four takes of the scene, but ultimately decided that the scene was too unintentionally comical. According to Palcy, Brando called her afterwards and confronted her about her decision, insisting that he liked the scene and wanted it to stay in this movie to show that the law meant nothing in South Africa. He allegedly threatened to slander her name throughout Hollywood, but she refused to back down and the scene was cut.

According to Marlon Brando in his memoirs, he felt the movie could have had a stronger story and that the director was out of her depth regarding the subject matter. Brando claimed he attempted to have the finished product re-edited but to no avail. The actor was disappointed by the film's disastrous performance at the box office.

When Marlon Brando's close friend Karl Malden saw the film, he wrote a letter to Brando that said, "I don't care if you are 50 pounds or 500 pounds. You are a freaking genius." Brando kept the letter until the day he died.

Subtitles: English & Portuguese

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/Eh-Qpap1Ck4

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