review for Cry, the Beloved Country on AllMovie

Moving performances by James Earl Jones and Richard Harris highlight this tale of racial discord in South Africa in 1946. The plot centers on two men -- James Jarvis (Harris), a wealthy white landowner, and Stephen Kumalo (Jones), a humble black minister -- who cross the separatist divide to confront each other after fear and mistrust cause Kumalo's son to kill Jarvis' son. Although the plot resorts to contrivances to help drive the action, the film delivers a message of hope as relevant today as it was in 1948, the year that Alan Paton (1903-1988) published the novel on which the film is based. Jones and Harris are equally brilliant in portraying men upon whom fate inflicts terrible tragedy. At times, Jones' character -- an earnest, upright Anglican pastor in the impoverished village of Ixopo -- becomes the biblical Job, abiding one seemingly intolerable setback after another as he attempts to reunite his family on a trip to Johannesburg, and Jones plays the role with great power and sensitivity. The film falters badly, though, when it asks viewers to believe that Jarvis, a confirmed separatist, can miraculously reform overnight after reading a letter written by his idealistic son before he died. The letter laments the injustice of separatism and the hypocrisy of whites who espouse Christianity but deny justice to their black neighbors. Not even Harris' intelligent performance can make Jarvis' instant rehabilitation believable. Still, the film has dignity and character, enhanced by good cinematography and a satisfactory John Barry music score. The ending of the film, when Kumalo climbs into the mountains to meet God and pray for his son, is particularly touching.