Since even TiVo owners can't watch everything worthwhile on Sunday-night television, the DVD release this week of "Endgame" and "Emma" -- presentations on PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary" and "Masterpiece Classic," respectively -- is good news indeed.
"Endgame" (Monterey Video, $26.95, rated PG-13) is part of a growing body of movies (including "A Dry White Season," "Cry Freedom," "Mandela and de Klerk" and "Invictus") about the popular revolt against apartheid in South Africa and the efforts of freedom fighter-turned-president Nelson Mandela to unite his racially fragmented country. "Endgame" made its international debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival before airing on British TV in May 2009 and on PBS later, in October. It also had a limited theatrical run at the end of last year.
Director Pete Travis ("Vantage Point") and screenwriter Paula Milne skillfully turn what is essentially a movie about two sets of negotiations into a tense political thriller. "Endgame" begins in 1985, when black resistance to white minority rule is growing, as are international sanctions against the apartheid regime. The government of President P.W. Botha maintains its repressive policies, but, in an effort to divide the outlawed African National Congress (ANC), has its head of national security, Dr. Neil Barnard (Mark Strong), begin secret discussions with Mandela (Clarke Peters, of HBO's "The Wire"), the still-imprisoned ANC leader.
At the same time, some forward-thinking international businessmen come to the conclusion that if apartheid's fall is inevitable, they must do something to protect their future business prospects in a country with new leaders and a new government. Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller), the public-relations adviser for Consolidated Gold Fields, a British-owned mining company that made its fortune in South Africa by cooperating with the white regime and relying on exploited black labor, decides that trust must be developed between the opposing sides before a meaningful and peaceful transition to democracy can take place.
Young manages to bring representatives of the two sides together for a series of discussions in an English manor house. Representing the ANC is its young information officer (and the future successor of Mandela as president of South Africa), Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The Afrikaaner delegation is headed by a respected university professor, Will Esterhuyse (William Hurt), a man known for both his opposition to apartheid and his commitment to protecting his own people and culture.
"Endgame" does an excellent job in depicting the growing turmoil in South Africa and it shows the pressures, including assassination threats and government surveillance, placed upon the protagonists, Mbeki and Esterhuyse.
But "Endgame" avoids artificially inflating the importance of the discussions. Instead, it skillfully places them in the context of what is happening on the streets of South Africa. Hurt and Ejiofor give excellent performances as two protagonists attempting to understand each other's motives.
The DVD's bonus features are limited -- brief interviews with actors Hurt and Miller, director Travis, writer Milne and producers David Aukin and Hal Vogel -- but informative.
"Emma," the latest TV miniseries or movie adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, takes place half a world away and 170 years before "Endgame." The four-part historical drama, which offers a keen view of the role of women in the socially stratified world of English country society of the early 19th century, is available this week in a two-disc DVD boxed set (BBC Worldwide, $34.98, not rated).
But "Emma" shares more with "Endgame" than its relationship to PBS, which aired the final episode this past Sunday evening. Actor Jonny Lee Miller, who adeptly plays the crucial, facilitating role of Michael Young in the apartheid drama, appears in "Emma" in the even more important role of Mr. Knightley. Miller's earnest and steadfast performance works in perfect balance with Romola Garai's terrific turn in the title role. Garai captures the intelligence, vivaciousness and sweetness of Emma Woodhouse, as well as her inveterate gossiping and inept matchmaking. The always-engaging Michael Chabon provides excellent support as Emma's loving-but-needy worrywart of a father. (Chabon is also the subject of a short DVD feature about his lengthy and illustrious career in acting.)
This "Emma," directed by Jim O'Hanlon, has been stretched to a slightly overlong four hours, though the miniseries' duration gives it plenty of time to show off the magnificent English countryside, the stately Woodhouse country manor and early-19th-century costumes and dances. (Short DVD featurettes on locations, costumes and music offer illustrative background material on the production.) Lovers of Jane Austen should not be disappointed.
(Contact Bruce Dancis at brucedancis(at)comcast.net.)
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