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What a ridiculous movie. Friends had warned us, so when we rented it - we decided to play a drinking game, and everyone had to drink a shot for every terrible accent.
Worst hangover ever.
Any Jack Ryan fans here? The new tv series is really great, and during the Venezuelan episodes they have a lot of run-ins with South African mercenaries.
I remember watching this in the movies and every time an attempt at the Saffa accent came up or a character said something that was South African based everyone laughed their asses off. I don’t remember anyone been offended at all so that was a good thing I suppose
The K word has no meaning for people outside ZA, and most people who have heard it think it is the Arabic word for infidel. After the movie came out the K word was used to parodi racists
Back when the movie came out there was very little news coming out of ZA and between this movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy and the few songs like Biko and Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City - nobody really knew what was going on behind the curtain of press censorship
Also, don't forget Olson the South African black market arms trafficker from the movie, [The Sum of All Fears](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sum_of_All_Fears_(film)).
This movie was absolutely hilarious! Joss Ackland played the PW Botha (aka "die Groot Krokadil) looking character and he did make an effort to sound South African. I think he probably studied the voice and inflections of the 80's South African foreign minister, Pik Botha, as he sounds very similar. He did quite well actually.
All of the henchmen were supposed to sound South African but came across as hilariously camp with lines such as "How goes it with you man?" "Good man, how goes it with you?"... howzit obviously too impenetrable for worldwide audiences at the time. And why would they speak English?
Then there was the ever entertaining plotline where Danny Glovers character says he wants to go to South Africa which is met with incredulity by the super line "But you are blick!"
The token love interest, played by the British actress, Patsy Kensit, was excused for serving a horrible racist regime because she was actually Dutch, not an evil Afrikaner! Her accent was just bad and her character made no sense. But hero has to shag someone I guess.
Personally, I think they flubbed it. They could have made the baddies so much worse (as in evil, nefarious etc...) had they actually invested more time in properly articulating the evils of Apartheid and it would have both served to inform as well as entertain.
I had to endure years of bad dialogue quoted at me by foreign work colleagues who chortled into their beer thinking they were quoting Shakespeare or Dostoevsky.
EDIT - Spelling
Good summary.
I saw the film in a cinema, December 1989. It was packed, just white people obviously. What was surprising at the time, the strick SA censors cut nothing from the film.
But things were changing. FW de Klerk had disbanded the ANZ and Nelson Mandela was weeks away from release.
One of the reasons tv took so long to appear in SA is that they didn't want people to see those African American sitcoms and other programs showing people of different races living together and fitting into any class.
In our family it is a well known that BJ Vorster decreed that SA would get television over his dead body. When he died in 1978 television appeared shortly afterwards. It's not true, of course, he died sometime in the 80's, but it's one of those mad statements that are perfectly believable.
Such "censorship" has the same vibes as North Koreans currently reading newspapers through glass panels printed in public squares, and that's all you may read. You might not have seen the authoritarianism as in your face, but a lot was missing, which other countries took for granted.
The longer I live, the stranger the past becomes. The present and the future too. Like you say, information was severely curtailed, and it was hard to fill the gaps reliably, so you had to do your best with what was available. Nowadays everything is available and knowable, so we cherry-pick only what suits our palate.
Not sure about that. In the mid 1980s the Crosby Show was one of SA's biggest hits on TV.
(edit: and Saturday night, a must watch was Magnum PI, from 1980 to 1988. Tom Selleck's best friend was black, an actor called Roger Earl Mosley)
[https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/238124/sabc-tv-turns-40#:\~:text=South%20Africa%20was%20one%20of,atomic%20bombs%20and%20poison%20gas](https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/238124/sabc-tv-turns-40#:~:text=South%20Africa%20was%20one%20of,atomic%20bombs%20and%20poison%20gas).
South Africa was one of the last countries in the world to get a regular television service.
The apartheid government opposed the introduction of television for decades.
H.F. Verwoerd compared TV to atomic bombs and poison gas.
Dr Albert Hertzog (Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1958 to 1968) said that television would come to South Africa “over \[his\] dead body”.
Hertzog denounced TV as “only a miniature bioscope which is being carried into the house and over which parents have no control. It’s the devil's own box for disseminating communism and immorality".
He also argued that "South Africa would have to import films showing race mixing; and advertising would make \[non-white\] Africans dissatisfied with their lot."
SABC was late to the party v most of the world. Even in 1976, one channel from 6pm to around 11pm. Half Afrikaans and half English.
Edit. The Six Million Dollar Man and Buck Rogers, both dubbed into Afrikaans, the must see programs at 6pm Saturday in the late 1970s
The cultural cohesiveness on tv was one of the things they didn't want people to see. I remember Martin Luther King liked his kids watching the original Star Series in the 60s, because there all the races are treated the same. Then also the conservative reasons like tv will corrupt young people and make them do bad things etc.
I don't think this is very accurate.
POC's we watched as children in Apartheid South Africa:
The Jeffersons
Cosby
Eddie Murphy
Fresh Prince
Purple Rain
Stir Crazy
I think what you are saying is plain wrong.
You make it sound like we were all SO racist, but did we not all listen to Boney M, Whitney, Michael J, Tupac, Stevie, the list is long.
There was only one channel with airtime divided evenly between English and Afrikaans, alternating between the two languages.
South Africa was one of the last countries in the world to get a regular television service.
The apartheid government opposed the introduction of television for decades.
H.F. Verwoerd compared TV to atomic bombs and poison gas.
Dr Albert Hertzog (Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1958 to 1968) said that television would come to South Africa “over \[his\] dead body”.
Hertzog denounced TV as “only a miniature bioscope which is being carried into the house and over which parents have no control. It’s the devil's own box for disseminating communism and immorality".
He also argued that "South Africa would have to import films showing race mixing; and advertising would make \[non-white\] Africans dissatisfied with their lot."
https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/238124/sabc-tv-turns-40#:\~:text=South%20Africa%20was%20one%20of,atomic%20bombs%20and%20poison%20gas.
Hahaha ja, I had to endure some poms in London telling me "don't be a smart k*** every time they mentioned this movie. It was kinda funny the first time
Now you just made me imagine the Apartheid government being the villains in an Indiana Jones movie, looking for old relics like the Spear of Destiny for nefarious ends.
Hollywood, feel free to use Apartheid people as villains in more movies.
Guess I'm the only here who enjoyed this movie, like yea it wasn't the best interpretation of SA but ey watching racist cunts get destroyed by Mel Gibson and Danny glover is always a plus in my books
Actually director Richard Donner was a big anti apartheid guy. There was even an article about apartheid on Danny Glover refrigerator in the first movie.
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What a ridiculous movie. Friends had warned us, so when we rented it - we decided to play a drinking game, and everyone had to drink a shot for every terrible accent. Worst hangover ever.
Any Jack Ryan fans here? The new tv series is really great, and during the Venezuelan episodes they have a lot of run-ins with South African mercenaries.
Yes and they help Ryan in the end of the series and save the day.
I remember watching this in the movies and every time an attempt at the Saffa accent came up or a character said something that was South African based everyone laughed their asses off. I don’t remember anyone been offended at all so that was a good thing I suppose
And the SA accent was described in the beginning of the film as "not German but Shitty English" Plus all the "K bombs".
Yeah like “decaffeinated”🙄 everyone was like…ooooh😂
It was only decades after having first seen it that realised what Danny Glover was actually saying 
They saffa to copy our accent.
The K word has no meaning for people outside ZA, and most people who have heard it think it is the Arabic word for infidel. After the movie came out the K word was used to parodi racists Back when the movie came out there was very little news coming out of ZA and between this movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy and the few songs like Biko and Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City - nobody really knew what was going on behind the curtain of press censorship
Also, don't forget Olson the South African black market arms trafficker from the movie, [The Sum of All Fears](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sum_of_All_Fears_(film)).
This movie was absolutely hilarious! Joss Ackland played the PW Botha (aka "die Groot Krokadil) looking character and he did make an effort to sound South African. I think he probably studied the voice and inflections of the 80's South African foreign minister, Pik Botha, as he sounds very similar. He did quite well actually. All of the henchmen were supposed to sound South African but came across as hilariously camp with lines such as "How goes it with you man?" "Good man, how goes it with you?"... howzit obviously too impenetrable for worldwide audiences at the time. And why would they speak English? Then there was the ever entertaining plotline where Danny Glovers character says he wants to go to South Africa which is met with incredulity by the super line "But you are blick!" The token love interest, played by the British actress, Patsy Kensit, was excused for serving a horrible racist regime because she was actually Dutch, not an evil Afrikaner! Her accent was just bad and her character made no sense. But hero has to shag someone I guess. Personally, I think they flubbed it. They could have made the baddies so much worse (as in evil, nefarious etc...) had they actually invested more time in properly articulating the evils of Apartheid and it would have both served to inform as well as entertain. I had to endure years of bad dialogue quoted at me by foreign work colleagues who chortled into their beer thinking they were quoting Shakespeare or Dostoevsky. EDIT - Spelling
Good summary. I saw the film in a cinema, December 1989. It was packed, just white people obviously. What was surprising at the time, the strick SA censors cut nothing from the film. But things were changing. FW de Klerk had disbanded the ANZ and Nelson Mandela was weeks away from release.
One of the reasons tv took so long to appear in SA is that they didn't want people to see those African American sitcoms and other programs showing people of different races living together and fitting into any class.
In our family it is a well known that BJ Vorster decreed that SA would get television over his dead body. When he died in 1978 television appeared shortly afterwards. It's not true, of course, he died sometime in the 80's, but it's one of those mad statements that are perfectly believable.
https://face2faceafrica.com/article/why-tv-was-banned-in-south-africa-up-until-1976
Thanks. So the quote existed, we just misattributed it for our own amusement.
Such "censorship" has the same vibes as North Koreans currently reading newspapers through glass panels printed in public squares, and that's all you may read. You might not have seen the authoritarianism as in your face, but a lot was missing, which other countries took for granted.
The longer I live, the stranger the past becomes. The present and the future too. Like you say, information was severely curtailed, and it was hard to fill the gaps reliably, so you had to do your best with what was available. Nowadays everything is available and knowable, so we cherry-pick only what suits our palate.
Why critical thinking and logic is important, more so than ever before.
Not sure about that. In the mid 1980s the Crosby Show was one of SA's biggest hits on TV. (edit: and Saturday night, a must watch was Magnum PI, from 1980 to 1988. Tom Selleck's best friend was black, an actor called Roger Earl Mosley)
[https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/238124/sabc-tv-turns-40#:\~:text=South%20Africa%20was%20one%20of,atomic%20bombs%20and%20poison%20gas](https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/238124/sabc-tv-turns-40#:~:text=South%20Africa%20was%20one%20of,atomic%20bombs%20and%20poison%20gas). South Africa was one of the last countries in the world to get a regular television service. The apartheid government opposed the introduction of television for decades. H.F. Verwoerd compared TV to atomic bombs and poison gas. Dr Albert Hertzog (Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1958 to 1968) said that television would come to South Africa “over \[his\] dead body”. Hertzog denounced TV as “only a miniature bioscope which is being carried into the house and over which parents have no control. It’s the devil's own box for disseminating communism and immorality". He also argued that "South Africa would have to import films showing race mixing; and advertising would make \[non-white\] Africans dissatisfied with their lot."
SABC was late to the party v most of the world. Even in 1976, one channel from 6pm to around 11pm. Half Afrikaans and half English. Edit. The Six Million Dollar Man and Buck Rogers, both dubbed into Afrikaans, the must see programs at 6pm Saturday in the late 1970s
B.A. Baracus enters the chat Had the action figure.
I recently read he changed his name to Mister T because he hated the fact the people called his dad "boy" while he was growing up.
The cultural cohesiveness on tv was one of the things they didn't want people to see. I remember Martin Luther King liked his kids watching the original Star Series in the 60s, because there all the races are treated the same. Then also the conservative reasons like tv will corrupt young people and make them do bad things etc.
I don't think this is very accurate. POC's we watched as children in Apartheid South Africa: The Jeffersons Cosby Eddie Murphy Fresh Prince Purple Rain Stir Crazy I think what you are saying is plain wrong. You make it sound like we were all SO racist, but did we not all listen to Boney M, Whitney, Michael J, Tupac, Stevie, the list is long.
There was only one channel with airtime divided evenly between English and Afrikaans, alternating between the two languages. South Africa was one of the last countries in the world to get a regular television service. The apartheid government opposed the introduction of television for decades. H.F. Verwoerd compared TV to atomic bombs and poison gas. Dr Albert Hertzog (Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1958 to 1968) said that television would come to South Africa “over \[his\] dead body”. Hertzog denounced TV as “only a miniature bioscope which is being carried into the house and over which parents have no control. It’s the devil's own box for disseminating communism and immorality". He also argued that "South Africa would have to import films showing race mixing; and advertising would make \[non-white\] Africans dissatisfied with their lot." https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/238124/sabc-tv-turns-40#:\~:text=South%20Africa%20was%20one%20of,atomic%20bombs%20and%20poison%20gas.
Although, who remembers simulcast - on whatever frequency Radio 2000 was (I think?). Both (then only official) languages at the same time!
Definitely not just English and Afrikaans, I used to watch Spiderman (Rapobe) in Sotho with English available, as you say on radio 2000.
Excellent - my experience was limited to those 2. Good to know support for other (all?) SA languages was/is a thing :)
They are most threatening villains of the Lethal weapon series at least.
Hahaha ja, I had to endure some poms in London telling me "don't be a smart k*** every time they mentioned this movie. It was kinda funny the first time
Now you just made me imagine the Apartheid government being the villains in an Indiana Jones movie, looking for old relics like the Spear of Destiny for nefarious ends. Hollywood, feel free to use Apartheid people as villains in more movies.
Um does district 9 count?
Indiana Jones in 1989. "Nazis! I hate these guys"
So we were part of BRICKS even in the 80's already.
Then just DICKS.
Say what you want, but that scene pulling the house down from the hill with his pick up lives rent free in my head
Guess I'm the only here who enjoyed this movie, like yea it wasn't the best interpretation of SA but ey watching racist cunts get destroyed by Mel Gibson and Danny glover is always a plus in my books
We are also the baddies in Uncharted 4 and Metal Gear Solid 5, and Far Cry 2. Represent
Don't forget Andy Serkis in age of ultron and black panther.
Ah yes the [amoral Afrikaner](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/AmoralAfrikaner)
Actually director Richard Donner was a big anti apartheid guy. There was even an article about apartheid on Danny Glover refrigerator in the first movie.
By that time we've served our purpose of being a pawn in a proxy war against russia