A Dry White Season

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A Dry White Season

R

Released Sep 20, 1989

1h 37m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Popcornmeter

82%

Tomatometer

74 Reviews

75%

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2,500+ Ratings

Teacher Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) mostly ignores the problems of apartheid in South Africa until he discovers that the son of a gardener (Winston Ntshona) at his school has been killed by corrupt policeman Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow). Du Toit persuades human rights attorney Ian McKenzie (Marlon Brando) to try the long-shot case against Stolz. During the trial, Du Toit's transformation into an advocate for justice is so absolute that it distances him from his family.

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Critics Consensus

A striking triumph for director Euzhan Palcy, A Dry White Season offers a condemnation of real-world injustice in the shape of a gripping legal thriller.

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

This is a role showcasing Brando’s remarkably effective, quasi-Shakespearean English accent, which snaps his entire performance into shape.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 20, 2024

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Terry Kelleher

Newsday

Paicy revamped a screenplay by Colin Welland and succeeded in turning the original Andre Brink novel into a movie that works more than acceptably a a thriller. But the relationships form the heart of the story.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 4, 2023

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Harper Barnes

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The cast, clearly dedicated to the project, is uniformly excellent, and there is no sense in the skillfully built, suspenseful flow of the story that this is Palcy's first major feature.

Jan 4, 2023

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Juan Rodriguez Flores

La Opinion

Euzhan Palcy finds sensibility and optics that allow her close proximity to such delicate territory. [Full review in Spanish]

Jan 6, 2023

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Hal Lipper

Tampa Bay Times

[Brando] is absolutely brilliant.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 4, 2023

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Rick Chatenever

Santa Cruz Sentinel

It does justice to its "message" by being an excellent movie. Being devastating is one thing; being relevant is something else. A Dry White Season uses its creative and fictional devices to achieve a degree of truth rare on any sort of screen.

Jan 4, 2023

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Alec B

A movie of subtle rage and pointed observations about the ways minds are changed (and just as often not changed) as well as the near impossible yet necessary task of resisting totalitarianism in all of its forms.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/24

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Anjum K

Lack of urgency, when demanded in such a film makes it languid and desirous to get over with, although the topic was quite stirring.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

10/13/23

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Audience Member

A movie of subtle rage and pointed observations about the ways minds are changed (and just as often not changed) as well as the near impossible yet necessary task of resisting totalitarianism in all of its forms.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

steve d

Powerful film extremely well acted.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

The only saving grace of this hackneyed political cinema on apartheid is Marlon Brando's brief but towering Oscar-nominated performance as a lawyer defending a black South African wrongly tortured by Afrikaner policemen.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

Saw this back in 1989 in my 20's and never forgot it, ahead of it's time in content. Saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo live in the early 90's because of this movie. Been a fan of both ever since. Great movie and music. Until 911 even some of the most worldly travelers of the U.S. were saying 'what war?' throughout the 80's and 90's. It's only in the last decade Americans really began to take an interest in international plights and politics.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

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Euzhan Palcy

Director

Donald Sutherland

Ben du Toit

Winston Ntshona

Gordon Ngubene

Janet Suzman

Susan du Toit

Jürgen Prochnow

Captain Stolz

Zakes Mokae

Stanley Makhaya

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Synopsis

Teacher Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) mostly ignores the problems of apartheid in South Africa until he discovers that the son of a gardener (Winston Ntshona) at his school has been killed by corrupt policeman Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow). Du Toit persuades human rights attorney Ian McKenzie (Marlon Brando) to try the long-shot case against Stolz. During the trial, Du Toit's transformation into an advocate for justice is so absolute that it distances him from his family.

Director: Euzhan Palcy
Producer: Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Colin Welland, Euzhan Palcy
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Sundance Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 20, 1989, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.3M
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Surround

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