ANDREW WORSDALE speaks to the makers of Jump the Gun – and weighs up the reactions to the film
LOCALLY produced movie Jump the Gun, a gritty look at life in the underbelly of Johannesburg through the eyes of five different characters ranging from a “sparkie” to a township gangster, has been stirring up a lot of debate in media and public circles since it opened across the country last week.
The down and dirty look at life in the new South Africa was given a release of 19 prints and played in venues as diverse as Sandton and Mitchell’s Plain. Of locally themed films only Leon Schuster’s have equally played to large audiences across the economic and social spectrum.
With the crossover distribution of Jump the Gun, audience and critical reactions have been a mixed bag. Several English-speaking newspapers called the film a milestone in South African cinema: “at last the great South African movie”, while others termed it “a crushing bore”.
Co-producer Indra de Lanerolle is obviously happy with the generally positive and extensive coverage. “If I as a producer ever get reviews as good as this again, I’ll be a lucky man,” he says. But he rejects the notion of “the great South African film”. “This is not the expectation of what a South African film should be; it’s its own thing. I think it very overburdening to have people say this will save local cinema. Basically it’s Les Blair’s film, it’s a reflection of what’s going on, but by no means the reflection.”
Many members of the so-called “black press” slated the movie, notably Sandile Memela of City Press, who said that it “teaches us clearly that the battle to tell the South African story has yet to be won”. He went on to accuse it of “glossing over the plight of its African characters … the biggest crack in Jump the Gun is its obsessive preoccupation with white stereotypes, prejudices and ill-founded reactions to living in a dominantly black world.”
There’s probably some truth in that, but perhaps most disturbing to those involved (who are all proud of the work) is that Memela accuses the actors of selling out to overseas film-makers, saying the problems of the film are compounded “by [the] increasing self-serving ambition of individuals to make it in `international’ films and the unwillingness of young actors to take a stand against the lure of `international success’ “.
De Lanerolle takes exception to the columnist’s views. “To attack the actors is bullshit. And to say they prostituted themselves is ridiculous. The implication is that it’s like other films that have been made here with overseas stars and American money. The point is `international’ means many different things and this is a genuine co-production with local talent.” True enough, local film- makers know how hard it is to raise finance for our own stories without having to cast actors like Richard Harris and Ice Cube in the leads or revert to jungle-bunny type stories like Tarzan and Jane, currently shooting in the country with international stars (Casper Van Dien and Jane March) and an overseas director, Carl Schenkel.
The Manchester born director of Jump the Gun, Les Blair, who auditioned over 300 actors for the piece and improvised with the core cast over three months is candid regarding criticism of the film’s deliberate avoidance of plot contrivance and a threadbare story-line, saying that its focus is on characters. “The last thing I wanted for this film is to have the burden of a message … the movie’s not `worthy’; rather it was a case that South Africa has grown up and now it can put real people on screen saying real things – not saying PC stuff like Cry Freedom or even Cry, the Beloved Country.” In fact, in contrast to Memela’s views, many of the local actors involved in the process had unstinting praise for Blair, not in a sycophantic way, but purely for the chance to hone their craft and be intimately involved in the creation of their stories. Nomsa Nene who plays shebeen queen Sis Buleng said, “It is exciting playing characters, not roles. ”
Blair readily admits that it would have been arrogant for him to come here with a script that was written in London but that, “I absolutely admit that I wanted to make a film that was warm and I came down here with a romantic idea. After all, I want South Africa to succeed. If it doesn’t work here then the whole of Africa’s fucked.”
Personally, part of the reason I found the film so compelling is that Blair and his crew respect actors and don’t treat them as mere ciphers around which the plot revolves – they are the plot. “I have an affection for all of the characters,” says Blair. “I think they’re all warm-hearted people who’ve been fucked up by the experience of life.”
As for negative gossip circulating in local film circles that the picture was re-cut, losing what some said was a needless 15 minutes, Blair is refreshingly candid, “A film isn’t ready until it goes on release. You’ve got to judge audience responses … but I haven’t thrown out anything because the material was bad. When you start throwing out stuff you like, then you know you’re okay.” He reiterates that this wasn’t a case of the film being re-cut by insecure producers or distributors, he was involved and initiated the process.
It’s certainly not blandly digestible. Meanwhile box-office takings are perhaps the best way to judge its success on the ground. The film is number 10 on the list of South African box office sales. The Kine Centre in downtown Johannesburg has reported the highest attendance across the country in a 500-seater cinema with weekend screenings filled to capacity. A spokesman for the cinema said they were doing “very, very well with this movie. I mean we’re making money.”