The Stick (1988)

During the apartheid era in South Africa, a young naive soldier is assigned to a unit of racist white soldiers. After they annihilate a remote village led by a which doctor, the spirits of those they've killed target them.

Director:

Darrell Roodt

Writers:

Darrell Roodt, Carole Shore

Stars:

Greg Latter, Sean Taylor, Frantz Dobrowsky

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Greg Latter	...	Cooper
Sean Taylor	...	O'Grady
Frantz Dobrowsky	...	Lieutenant
James Whyle	...	Evans
Nicky Rebelo	...	Ferreira
Frank Opperman	...	Frank
Gys de Villiers	...	Visser
Winston Ntshona	...	The Witchdoctor
Dixon Malele	...	Mkhonto (as Dickson Malele)
Elsabe Zietsman	...	Concert Singer
Kerneels Coertzen	...	Major
Louis Minnaar	...	Platoon Captain
Floris de Clerq	...	Point Leader
Lucky Sishuba	...	Herd Boy
Theo Matsiesta	...	Herd Boy

Storyline

A group of South African soldiers are sent out into the bush to find and destroy a rebel group that killed an earlier patrol. When they find a small village with all the men gone, the soldiers panic and slaughter the remaining villagers, including an old witch doctor. As the group tries to make their way back to camp, strange things begin happening to them. Are the enemy soldiers normal humans, or have they been cursed by the old shaman?

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Plot Keywords:

revenge | racist | racism | white supremacist | young soldier | 

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Genres:

Action | Horror | War

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Details

Country:

South Africa

Language:

English Afrikaans

Release Date:

15 June 1989 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Platoon Warrior

Filming Locations:

South Africa

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artistic Film Production Company, Exciting Films, Distant Horizon

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min (VHS)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film has been banned in South Africa as of 1988. The producers refused to comply with the censors' demand for 48 cuts. This was the first South African film shown in the USSR when it was shown at the 1989 Moscow Film Festival.

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Quotes

O'Grady: [sees the witchdoctor's skeleton] Miguel! Come and feast your eyes on this, china.

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Crazy Credits

"We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives, that it is inside ourselves." - Albert Camus

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Soundtracks

Bad Boys
Lyrics by Janice Honeyman
Composed by Kevin Feather
Produced by Soltone Recording Studios
Performed by Elsabe Zietsman

User Reviews

An attempt to capture the South African infantryman's experience of the war in Angola, The Stick is nearly there, but not quite.

Made at a time when South Africa was heavily embroiled in a big punch-up in Angola, The Stick was bound to incur the considerable wrath of the authorities. In fact, worse was yet to come (Cuito Cuanavale) but we didn't know it then. The Stick is often compared to Oliver Stone's Platoon but it is both a grittier and yet less satisfying portrait of men at war. It suffers greatly from having the players dressed in non-SADF uniforms, operating in an nameless African country, and yet it's obviously supposed to be the SADF in Angola. As a result the film is reduced to allegory and we are left with the situation that no film-maker (and few writers) have adequately explored the effects of the Angolan war and South Africa's long-winded role in it. But the performances are superb and accurate. The O'Grady character is typical of the sociopaths that one found in just about every SADF platoon, no matter which branch of service. The tension between the rank and file, and the underlying tension between the English-speaking and Afrikaans conscripts is finely pitched. As a record of the SADF experience, The Stick is pretty good. But, still, it could use a re-make.