Get out your Kleenexes, folks. This heavy drama is a massive tearjerker. After the credits rolled, I remember crying for half an hour; thankfully, I was home alone at the time. Even if you're not a parent, this movie will tug on your heart.

There was an original version in 1951, but it was very low-budget and simply made. The remake focuses on the real meat of the story, of two fathers connecting over the bond of their sons. In South Africa, set during the 1940s, James Earl Jones plays a minister with a wonderful heart who has set a good example for his son. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that his son is missing, on the run from law. When he sets on a journey to find and exonerate him, he meets another missing boy's father, Richard Harris. Richard is prejudiced, but as he's forced to spend time with James to find out what happened to his son, he learns many lessons.

The title tells you to cry, and cry you will. Some performances are so emotional, I feel embarrassed to see the actors putting themselves in such vulnerable positions. Admittedly a double-standard, I always find it much more tragic and effective to see men cry. In essence, this movie turns me into a puddle. Watch at your own risk, but you'll see some fantastic performances if you do.

I read CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY in high school, and was quite impressed by it's dignified and somber retelling of the tragedy of modern South Africa under the apartheid system that was in place at the time. Alan Paton had a literary and political career in the Union of South Africa, and was opposed to the system that kept down the native Black Africans while the native white Africans ruled them. His novel was quite shocking in his home country, and led to his being forbidden to be published there. Now he seems remarkably prescient.

The novel was made into a film in 1951, which I never saw. But I have finally seen this version today and while it whittles down the plot a bit, it's emphasis on the dual tragedy of the Kumalo and Jarvis families actually enhances the effect.

James Earl Jones plays Rev. Stephen Kumalo, an honorable man from the countryside who goes to Johannisburg to find his son Absolom. From the start we see contrasts. The beauties and glories of the magnificent veld v. the dirt and grime of the city. The large home of the Jarvis family as opposed to the poor homes of Rev. Kumalo.

Rev. Kumalo goes to an address in one of the slums of Johannisburg that the Blacks were forced to live in. He tries to trace his son, with the assistance of a fellow minister, Rev. Msimangu ( Vasi Kunene) and gets less helpful assistance from his brother John Kumalo (Charles S. Dutton). The latter is a local politician, but is soon revealed to be an opportunist and crook.

Eventually Rev. Kumalo finds his son has been in trouble with the police, and recently released from a reformatory. This was due to Absolom having a pregnant girlfriend. The Reverend traces his son to the girlfriend, but she has not heard from him for a few days. The next thing that the Reverend hears is that Absolom and two others (including the son of John Kumalo) were involved in a burglary murder that resulted in the death of Ian Jarvis.

Tom Jarvis, long used to accept the harsh separation of the races as natural, comes to a stunning discovery - his son's posthumous condemnation of the social system of South Africa as one to abhor as it breeds crime and hatred. The discovery of this side to his son leads him to slowly find a bridge uniting him with Rev. Kumalo, as they both find the system destroy their boys.

One has to see the film to understand this bridging of the the lives of the fathers (ironically neighbors who rarely knew each other or each other's families in the "normal" period). One also sees the warning that Paton instilled in his readers: Rev. Msimangu's fear that when the White race finally turns to love the Black race will only accept hate.

Much is dropped of the four hundred fifty page novel, such as Paton's ritualistic use of descriptions again and again (which can't be translated to film successfully) or plot threads regarding the final break between the Reverend and his brother John, or the Reverend trying to trace other lost children from the town (one is mentioned briefly). But the somberness of the tragedy of Absolom, who with Ian become joint blood sacrifices to a racist state is total. The performances of Jones and Harris are equally effective. Altogether a first rate film version of the novel.

James Earl Jones and the late Richard Harris give stellar performances as fathers in apartheid South Africa. This film is an adaptation of the novel by writer, Alan Paton. Since I haven't read the novel, I can only go by the presentation. Jones and Harris are two of the finest actors in film. This film captures the heartache, immorality, injustice, and other depictions of South Africa in the 1940s. For two men of different races, they are brought together by tragedy. The art director and scenery is quite spectacular. The depiction of an earlier time period is well done with art direction and costumes. The film is less than two hours. The film is more character driven than action driven. It's a sad film overall about a dark history in humankind. South Africa's apartheid separated the races where the minority whites lived affluently while the blacks lived in poverty. The cast includes Charles Dutton, an American actor, as a South African preacher. Still it's Jones and Harris' film overall. Their performances are powerhouses.