Cry Freedom / YMMV

Awesome Music: The rendition of "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" at the end of the film.
- Although it's not part of the film itself, a music video for a live version of Peter Gabriel's song "Biko" (the 1980 studio version of which is widely credited for popularizing the anti-Apartheid movement outside of South Africa) showing clips of the movie was produced.
Nightmare Fuel:
- The destruction of the black community center by the police.
- The destruction of the slum in the beginning. The scene showed many innocent black men, women, and children losing their homes to bulldozers. It even showed white policemen bringing their guard dogs into homes and terrifying babies and women.
- The Soweto uprising of 1976.
- The fact that everything in this film is based on a true story.
- The list of deaths that happened in prison, the majority of which are obviously poor cover-ups for Police Brutality. The government clearly became aware and stopped even giving a reason for the deaths, because the cover-ups had just gone too far.
- Steve Biko's lingering death, as viewed through the white police doctor summoned to examine him in the jail. Because of his training and the tests he administers to an unconscious Biko, the doctor (along with the viewer) realizes pretty much immediately what has been done to Biko. You can see the doctor's quietly mounting horror as he tries to explain to the police guards - without pissing them off - that Biko's injuries are dead serious, that he's not faking it ("You can't 'sham' a reflex."), and that Biko needs urgent medical attention. When the senior officer instead announces that Biko will be transferred to the police hospital in Pretoria - 700 miles away - to "prevent any chance of escaping," he effectively signs Biko's death warrant^note. This is particularly made clear when Biko is loaded naked and unconscious into the police Land Rover, and his head constantly bounces on the car floor as the vehicle drives over the bumpy road, culminating in the screen freezing and Biko's death date appearing.
Paranoia Fuel: The policemen of your town are corrupt and racist enough to actually sneak into community centers and destroy them. Attempting to call them out results in more policemen threatening you and the witnesses. If you oppose the system, you may be arrested, lethally beaten, and your death's actual cause covered up.
Retroactive Recognition:
- A girl at the funeral is played by Gwyneth Strong, who would later be best known for playing Cassandra Trotter in Only Fools and Horses.
- A receptionist is played by Judy Cornwell, who would later be best known for playing Daisy in Keeping Up Appearances.
Tear Jerker:
- Every time a black person is treated unfairly.
- Steve Biko's tragic death.
- The destruction of a populated slum, and that's only the beginning of the movie.
- Woods' children being burned by acid. Fortunately, they survive.
- The Woods family having to flee. They fortunately make it, but you can tell that they're sad to leave their life and the few friends they have behind.
- The list of those who died in police custody under suspicious circumstances. The amount is positively staggering, as are the frequent lame excuses given. Even worse, despite his story being the focus of the film, Biko is simply one of the many names given, and his death is attributed to a hunger strike?!
- The Soweto uprising.
Too Cool to Live: Biko.
Values Resonance: Biko's early scenes with Woods' where he calls out his liberal opposition to Apartheid while still benefiting from it and illustrates to him the nature of poverty and racism where black children grow up knowing that, no matter their abilities or ambition, they will never get the same opportunities as white children and are doomed to live and die in the same terrible circumstances as their parents is very much in line with the growing discourse about race relations in the United States and other countries in the 2010s and 20s.

YMMV / Cry Freedom

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