From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell from KCRW.com.

My guest, director Philip Noyes, seems to have a new career going for himself in his last three films,

Reverproof Fence, The Quiet American, and Now Catch a Fire.

There's a new political bent to his films, I would say.

Of course, his previous work includes films like Dead Calm, the Jack Ryan films.

Phil, thanks for coming back, first of all.

Thank you for having me back.

We've talked about so many themes that run through your movies. These last three movies very much have been kind of about a kind of awakening

or a moment that sort of crystallizes for people.

Yeah, yeah.

And Catch a Fire is a story set in apartheid South Africa,

a story of an ordinary working man, a black man,

who is pushed so far by the apartheid regime,

pushed down so far that he has nowhere to go but to decide that he's going to take action,

that he's going to try and change the system. Of course, that involves huge sacrifice. He has to

leave his wife and two children, the job that's

provided him a little bit of happiness and security. And also provided him a way to sort of like

walk through his life narcotized by having a few creature comforts. He believes that he's basically

part of the system. Yeah, yeah. He has to give it all up for an unknown future,

but a future that's got to be better than the life that he's leading now,

at least better than the life that he's allowed to leave.

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