the corner office

A while back I pointed to eish.net's excellent and damned funny review of the accents in the movie Stander. Ronwen and I finally got Stander on DVD, and we enjoyed it to bits.

For those who don't know (probably almost all non-Sefricans, and all Sefricans younger than, say, 25), Andre Stander was something of a cultural icon in the early 80s in South Africa. As a disillusioned Captain in the SA Police Force, he became a master of disguise and robbed 26 banks. He was caught and jailed, and escaped. In the six months after his escape, he and 2 cronies, Lee McCall and Allan Heyl became the Stander gang, and they robbed another 20 banks, and made utter fools of the cops. In one case, a bank manager bragged to radio reporters that the gang, having robbed his bank, had missed the safe that held most of the money. Hearing this on the radio, the gang turned around, drove back, and robbed the bank again. In another case, they robbed the bank right next to the offices of the police task force assigned to catch them. Chutzpah and flair were what it was all about.

Of course, I can't remember what of this is true and what's embellishment, but the real-life Stander gang were famous for their outrageous antics, so I don't doubt the crazier bits of the story. Strangely, my first memory of Andre Stander's name was in the news reports of him being shot and killed by a US policeman in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, circa 1983. Ever since, every time I hear mention of Fort Lauderdale, Andre Stander's name springs to mind.

As for the movie, I think eish.net's review does a better job of saying what I'd like to say. A Google search on Stander's name brings up a few articles that tell the true story upon which the movie is based, but which the movie doesn't faithfully recount. Some plot points didn't work for me, but on the whole it's a great story, which is what matters. The accents (always the first things South Africans worry about when it comes to the foreign actors) are plausible, if a little OTT.

The coolest thing about the movie for South Africans will be the late 70s, early 80s nostalgia and authenticity. We see old Omo adverts, TJ number plates, Ford Cortinas and Toyota Corollas. We see Riaan Cruywagen and old TV presenters we'd long since forgotten. We see awful 70's architecture like the Jan Smuts (Johannesburg) International Airport which was only revamped in the mid-90s, we see crap 70s curtains and we see "Mellow Yellow" police vans. We get to see some brilliant Sefricanisms and colloquialisms on celluloid, which doesn't happen too often.

In short: thumbs up.