steve biko be a black activist who try to resist the white minority govern south africa in much the same way a gandhi try to resist the british empire colonialism in india . richard attenborough film cry freedom be not about biko or apartheid as much a it be about donald wood and the white liberal newspaper editor who risk his life try to tell biko story . the film have a jarring point of view switch after biko dy in prison from tortuous behavior at the hand of south african police . wood and play by kevin kline and must choose whether to do the right thing and flee the country to publish book about biko or allow his wife and play by penelope wilton and to pressure him into forget about the book . in that case and biko dy in vain . what begin a a life change friendship between biko and wood degenerate into a standard by the number escape over the border yarn after biko death . oscar nominate denzel washington be good in only his fourth film a biko and but something be wrong in a film that try to depict the struggle of apartheid by focus more on the trial of a white family for more than half the film . attenborough would have serve his topic well by focus on biko rise to prominence instead of begin where biko befriend wood . perhaps a black actor in a leading role in a 2 half hour film wasn not exactly conducive to big box office and but the film be a tremendous box office flop anyway . film politics aside and the film still entertain and send a message or two and albeit and in pg sanitized fashion . of 4 star .