Review: Invictus (2009)
Mark Leeper
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon star in Clint
Eastwood's story of how Nelson Mandela used rugby
football to unite a South Africa that some say was on
the verge of civil war. Mandela urges the captain of
the national rugby team, the Springboks, to mold his
team into one that can win the World Cup. The story
is just a little too straightforward and predictable
with Eastwood apparently too anxious to concentrate on
too much detail of the final game. Anthony Peckham's
screenplay, based on the book by John Carlin, tells its
predictable story without putting too much spin on the
ball. But if the story is obvious, at least Eastwood
makes it sufficiently rousing and at the same time a
spiritual experience. Some viewers may have problems
understanding the South African accents. Rating:
high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
In 1994 Nelson Mandela, formerly an anti-apartheid political
prisoner for 27 years, was elected President of South Africa. Many
who supported apartheid believed that the country would fall apart
under the race hatred between the blacks and the whites. Some even
wanted or expected civil war. Mandela could have taken his
election as a mandate and implemented a policy that would have been
"winner-take-all". Instead he wanted desperately to unite his
country. He refused to oust whites from their offices and chose to
forget the past and continue the government in a spirit of
forgiveness and reconciliation. It is not mentioned in the film
but Mandela made as his deputy Frederik Willem de Klerk, the former
President, and Mandela's one-time political enemy.
One of the symbols of apartheid was the entirely white (with one
exception) national rugby team, the Springboks. In the earlier
days the whites of the country always rooted for the Springboks;
the blacks, including Mandela, always rooted against them. His own
party supported disbanding the team, at this point a losing team
anyway. Mandela saw he might be able to use the team to unite
blacks and whites. He encouraged Francois Pienaar, the team
captain, to forge his team into a winning force that could take the
Rugby World Cup the following year. INVICTUS is the story of
Mandela's political efforts to heal South Africa and of the team's
efforts to remold itself into a winning team.
There is no question at all where this film is going from the
beginning. It is one of the most standard plots in film to show
why it is important for the team of losers to win and then have the
story build up to the "big game." In this case it really happened
that way in real life. In MILLION DOLLAR BABY Eastwood took a
standard sports plot and then did things entirely original with it.
And in that film the fight sequences were relatively brief. Here
he does little that would surprise anyone with a passing knowledge
of Mandela's story.
Actually INVICTUS is two related films: one of Mandela's struggle
to unite his country and one of the team preparing for and playing
the World Cup game. The sports story is strictly by the numbers,
building to an extended dramatization of the crucial game. This is
a lot like any number of films about American football, but the
sport is rugby so there is a real surfeit of shots of players
piling up on each other with the camera filming their most
unflattering angle. Pienaar (played by Matt Damon, who has the
build of an athlete and does a good South African accent) brings
little to the role that some deserving lesser-known South African
actor could not have. Of course the real star is Morgan Freeman
who just occasionally sounds like he slips out of his affected
South African accent. He looks the role and does a good job,
though probably not much of a stretch from his usual man-of-great-
dignity characters.
The film follows three or four mixed-race groups of people. At the
beginning each still has the spirit of apartheid, but as the film
progresses they come closer together ignoring their racial
differences. For example, we see Mandela's mixed-race team of
bodyguards with the blacks and white wanting nothing to do with
each other. But by the end of the film they are close friends
playing ball together.
The story here is as predictable as would be another production of
"Hamlet", but it is cogently told and rousing. In spite of its
obvious, but historically accurate, arc I rate INVICTUS a high +2
on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10. It is probably more than simple
coincidence that Eastwood is making this film at this time. I
think this film is more than Eastwood just giving us a profile in
courage. There are obvious parallels to another man who is the
first black President of his own divided country and who working
hard to bring together his supporters and his former political
rivals in a spirit that was perhaps inspired by Nelson Mandela.
Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1057500/>
What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/invictus/>
The title of the film comes from the poem that Mandela found
meaningful and which he used to strengthen himself during his long
years of confinement. For those who want the poem, here is
"Invictus" by English poet William Ernest Henley. The title is
Latin for "unconquered".
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper
Michael
message, is that they are very predictable. Competition is always about
winning, and I think it is difficult as a script writer to find new angles
on it. Fans of the sport in question will no doubt love the movie anyway.
"Mark Leeper" <mle...@optonline.net> skrev i melding
news:20c23ae2-45b1-49b4...@g31g2000vbr.googlegroups.com...
moviePig
> This is the thing about sports movies, even one with an important political
> message, is that they are very predictable. Competition is always about
> winning, and I think it is difficult as a script writer to find new angles
> on it. Fans of the sport in question will no doubt love the movie anyway.
The movie I liked quite a lot. Rugby, not so much. Fortunately, the
latter merely plays a secondary role in the former.
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