Mister Johnson [Blu-ray]

A decade after he broke through with Breaker Morant, Australian director Bruce Beresford made another acclaimed film about the effects of colonialism on the individual. In a performance that earned him the Berlin Film Festival’s Silver Bear for best actor, Maynard Eziashi (Bopha!) plays the title character, a Nigerian villager eager to work as a civil servant for the British authorities, including a sympathetic district officer (GoldenEye’s Pierce Brosnan), in the hopes that it will benefit him in the future. Instead, his ambition leads to his tragic downfall. Mister Johnson, based on a 1939 novel by Joyce Cary, is a graceful, heartfelt drama about the limits of idealism, affectingly acted and handsomely shot. DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES  • New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Bruce Beresford, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack   • New video interviews with Beresford, producer Michael Fitzgerald, and actors Maynard Eziashi and Pierce Brosnan • Trailer • PLUS: An essay by film scholar Neil Sinyard