I have to look up my original review for Sarafina! that I wrote back in 1992. I wrote it for the college newspaper and, of course, I kept all my articles I wrote that were published. I have some fond and funny memories of this movie review from over 20 years ago.

#1: I called it the very best movie of 1992. Hands down, no question. And the year was just barely half over.

#2: My editor/teacher edited my article and the line: "…and it's the best movie of 1992" to "…and it's the best movie of 1992, in my opinion." I thought that was the funniest and saddest thing I ever seen her write. OBVIOUSLY it's my opinion, or I wouldn't have accomplished the goal of writing a movie review, or: opinion piece. (We published it WITHOUT her input/edit.)

Wow. Well, in my defense, I saw it at a screener and I must've been in an excellent mood that day. Because there are things wrong above and it ain't my mentor's editing. (She is still wrong.)

One should never conclude the year in September and state this or that's the best or worst of the year. *Especially* with award season coming up. Also, I was definitely wrong: This is the same year that released Aladdin, Unforgiven, Scent of a Woman, Basic Instinct, A Few Good Men…just to name a handful and all of my favorite movies. And some of those came out earlier than this one. So, I truly don't know what I was on.

At any rate, fast forward to 2013. I found this movie on DVD for a very small amount on Amazon.com. Thinking that I absolutely loved it in 1992, and that it'll probably never appear on BluRay, I purchased it. Somehow it sat shelved until recently and I rewatched it, only for the 2nd….and last time.

Yeah, it didn't hold up. I even felt I was over-generous for giving it 3/5 (or in IMDb-land 5/10.) Sure the story was there and the heart was in the actors, but the songs were really mediocre at best and the feeling was only mild this time.

The oddest and most coincidental thing about this viewing was that I decided, after almost a year of owning it without revisiting it, I would watch it finally and it was just past the passing of Nelson Mandela. This movie's core is about him and why they fight and move forward. I hadn't remembered that from my original viewing over two decades past.

I guess I would recommend this movie, but, regrettably, not as much as I did long ago. It's a movie about war, peace, hope and prevailing. It's uplifting, fun and funny at spots while also being deep and depressing. It's not a great musical, but it's one we can stand behind.

* * * Final thoughts: Wait until you get to 12/31 before you choose what's the best of the year. Take my amateur word for it.

Sarafina was a fun movie, and some of the songs were really great. Sarafina was very entertaining. I don't normally like music things like this, but the singing was not lame like it looked like on the box. The movie was useful for learning about history because it was an interesting perspective of the Soweto rioting of 1976. It showed you things from the perspective of the students in the rioting and showed you that they were real characters. Because you got to see them as real characters this makes you like them more as an audience, and makes you more sympathetic to them as totally the victims of the white government, who you can not sympathise with. The singing of the students is correct because we know from accounts that the students in the riot were singing and dancing before it became violent. The clothing of the students in Sarafina is very similar to the clothing shown in photos from Soweto. They made the movie actually in Soweto, which is why it looks very accurate in many parts. All these things make the film more accurate for someone using it to learn about aparthied. As viewers we must be critical of the way the history of Apartheid was presented. As I said before, you become sympathetic to the students - this makes it potentially less reliable and objective. Also, it changes some of the details from other accounts. In Sarafina it turns to chaos when the policeman comes into their classroom and shoots the students. The police and army were very aggressive at Soweto, but this is probably an exaggerated event. The police and army did shoot students, but there is not evidence of them going into schools and executing people like this. The fighting was more in the streets and had looting and crime. This is done in the movie probably to make you feel more sorry for the school students. The movie would have been more useful if it had some different information about aparthied. The teacher was arrested for being against the government, and the mum goes to work in a white persons house. But there is not any information about the government and why they were doing it or any details about the racist policies and laws. -By George S, Chris and Finlay

In 1992, South Africa's transition away from four decades of institutionalized racism was underway, so it made sense to release a movie about apartheid. There had been a couple of movies about the topic by this point (Cry Freedom, A World Apart, A Dry White Season), but to my knowledge no famous movie had featured black South Africans as the main characters until "Sarafina!". It makes clear that the apartheid government was a militaristic, near fascist regime - sending armed guards into the schools to make sure that the black students only learn the government-approved syllabus - but also that the black majority knew that they had power in their numbers. It's got some of the most impressive music.

While Whoopi Goldberg's presence gets touted, another important cast member is singer Miriam Makeba. Makeba was one of the most famous activists in the country. Here she plays the mother of the title character, working as a domestic servant for a white family. When Sarafina goes to visit her mother, the employer casually greets her. Cordial though it may seem, it's clear that this white family will never accept Sarafina or Sarafina's mother as their equals.

We could be cynical and say that even since the end of apartheid, conditions remain the same for blacks white many of the whites still cling to racist attitudes. Even so, it's important to understand the history, especially since the apartheid government did things like send troops to Angola to back an autocrat against the country's independence movement.

And yes, the recently deceased Hugh Masekela did some of the music.