ALT="[Mandela]" align=right width=225 height=148 hspace=15 vspace=5> Nelson Mandela is one of the greatest living icons of freedom and justice, but Jo Menell & Angus Gibson's documentary Mandela strives to render him human. Perhaps too much so: earnest, plodding, routine, and sometimes confusing, the film manages at times to make its subject boring.

That's quite an accomplishment for such a remarkable life. A charismatic, uncompromising leader of the African National Conference, Mandela crusaded for equal rights in apartheid Africa only to be convicted of treason in 1964. He served 27 years, was released, united the warring factions contending against the white minority government, presided over the forming of a new constitution, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and was elected president of a new, racially unified nation.

Mandela meanders overlong and uninsightfully in its subject's earlier life, at the cost of more-confusing, complex issues like the tribal origins of South African strife and the role of his ex-wife Winnie in his career. Enlivening the talking-heads format is some stunning archival footage of turn-of-the-century warfare between spear-carrying native Africans and Europeans armed with modern weapons. But what most illuminates the film is the presence of Mandela himself: imposing and wry, dispensing wisdom and wisecracks, he injects what the film lacks most -- a sense of humor and a sense of destiny. At the Kendall Square.