The brutally oppressive Apartheid regime in South Africa is the setting for this film of social consciousness. No sooner is Shack Twala (Poitier) miraculously released from his ten-year jail term before he is roughed up and threatened with returning to prison, as he is passing through a zone off limits to blacks lacking official papers. He is guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time as a passenger in his lawyer's car in Cape Town. Told to get out of the vehicle he struggles with a white policeman. Jim Keogh (Caine), a British engineer and a friend of Twala's lawyer van Niekirk (Gee), comes to his aid and the two become immediate fugitives from the law. Twala implores Keogh to drive him to Johannesburg where he may find a sympathetic ally.
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The two unlikely companions make the 900-mile trip, nearly apprehended by law enforcement. Twala has handcuffs so tight around his wrists nearly stopping all blood circulation to his hands they must break into a machine shop and remove the manacles before his hands become crippled. The film follows the plight of the pair on the lam and government agent Major Horn (Williamson) on their trail. Each man having to coach the other through the two different worlds they encounter in South Africa and it's segregated society. The plot has some surprises for the viewer making the story a bit more intriguing than just a cops and fugitives flick.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Fletcher
