This Denzel Washington political biopic is a must-watch in 2026, and it's an Oscar-worthy performance

I'm in week four of watching every Denzel Washington movie ever, and this week, I'm being rewarded for my perseverance. That's because this week, I watched "Cry Freedom," a 1987 biopic about South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko and his influence on newspaper editor Donald Woods, who ultimately fled South Africa to tell the story of Steve to the world. In fact, it's Woods's books that serve as the source material for this movie's screenplay.

If you haven't read my previous two articles in this ongoing series, I was inspired by an X (Twitter) post by The New York Times senior staff writer Brooklyn White-Grier, which stated that you could watch one of Denzel's 52 movies every week of 2026 without needing to repeat a movie. Since I'm going in chronological order, I've already reviewed "Carbon Copy," "A Soldier's Story" and "Power."

Frankly, only one of the three — "A Soldier's Story" — has been good. It's not Denzel's fault. He's genuinely been great in all three. But even the best of those three can't hold a candle to "Cry Freedom," an award-winning, thought-provoking examination of apartheid that earned Denzel his first Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actor).

If you want to watch this movie before you read on, you can buy or rent "Cry Freedom" from Amazon, Apple TV or Fandango at Home. Unfortunately, it's not available on the best streaming services or the best free streaming services. Once you're done watching, though, read on for my review of this 1987 biopic drama, which feels especially relevant in our current political climate.

Malcolm McMillan

Malcolm has been with the Streaming team at Tom's Guide since 2023, reviewing dozens of movies each year so you don't have to watch the bad ones.

'Cry Freedom' is as relevant today as it was when it came out nearly four decades ago

Unlike "Power," this movie was very much worth the $4 I spent to rent it. "Cry Freedom" isn't perfect; it has a few notable flaws, largely around the centering of Kline as journalist Donald Woods as the film's protagonist. But it's an incredibly thought-provoking film, and with the current state of racial tensions in the U.S., it's impossible to watch this movie and not draw parallels between apartheid-era South Africa and present-day America.

The plot of the movie itself is relatively simple. After seeing negative coverage of Steve Biko (Denzel Washington), leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele (Josette Simon) accosts the paper's editor-in-chief, Donald Woods. This incites Woods, an anti-apartheid white liberal who finds the radical BCM to be racist and thinks of Biko as a troublemaker, to visit the activist in King William's Town, where Biko has been "banned" (a practice that basically confined Biko to a church, and made it illegal for him to be around more than one other person at a time).

Once he talks with Biko, Woods begins to come around to the activist's point of view, which is aimed at putting control of South Africa back in the hands of Black South Africans, rather than merely making it so they're able to assimilate into white, Afrikaner culture. The more that Woods sees what it's like for Black people in South Africa — where they work, what jobs they can do, who they can see, what they can say is all controlled by a white minority — the more he realizes that the country should be returned to the Africans who were there before colonization.

Now, if any of that feels eerily familiar to you, that's because the BCM should feel a lot like the modern Black Lives Matter movement, which seeks to elevate Black people to a standing where they can receive the same rights and privileges as white people in the U.S.

Similar to the BCM, BLM's rhetoric has been viewed by some as too aggressive and even inciting violence. At points in the first half of the movie, characters complain about Biko's confrontational words, the BCM blaming all whites for apartheid, etc. Woods even says at one point that he's "scared" by Biko's words.

But, as Denzel says in his portrayal of Biko taking the stand at a trial of fellow BCM members, confrontation is not the same as violence. The confrontation may come from Biko and the BCM in "Cry Freedom," but the violence comes from the white National Party. They beat Biko on multiple occasions, raid and raze Black slums to the ground and even make things so bad for Woods by the end of the movie that he's left South Africa in self-imposed exile after he too was banned by the government.

In following Woods's banning, the movie starts to struggle a little, as it shifts from an examination of a political movement into a thriller about getting Woods out of the country, so he can publish a book about Steve's treatment by the police and shed light on apartheid. "Cry Freedom" is best when it's at its most thought-provoking, and much of the third act, frankly, isn't.

That said, the movie does end on a powerful note, as we see a flashback to a student strike in Soweto that ended with live rounds being shot at unarmed civilians, killing 700 and wounding 4,000. The credits roll shortly after that, displaying the names of all the activists who fought to free Black South Africans from apartheid, with the "official" causes of death from the Afrikaner government listed next to the names.

So, no, this movie isn't flawless. It's a movie about Black struggle centered around a white man, and even though it's Denzel, not Kevin Kline, that (deservedly) gets the Oscar nomination, there's no getting around that.

I will say, though, while this movie can validly be viewed as a white savior narrative, I think it can also be viewed as evidence of the work Black people have to do just to convince even the most well-meaning that the struggles of Black people are real, and not just "shamming," as one police officer in this movie puts it.

Regardless of the conclusion you reach, though, this movie should undeniably provoke you into deep thought about race relations and the inhumanity with which people can be treated. It should also make you think about how relatively little has changed in some places nearly four decades later. It's that last part that makes "Cry Freedom" as valuable a viewing as ever, and it's something I couldn't get out of my head while watching it.

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