Clint Eastwood gets better with age and so do his films. He has created powerful, moving films for years and some of them like Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Changeling, and Gran Torino all have a deep emotional feel to them as they should. Invictus falls right in to that group, but it is a little more light-hearted but still moving and inspiring. Though the finale is a predictable one, it is very appropriate.
Invictus (meaning “Unconquerable” in Latin) puts a great director together with two powerful actors: Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela, who is fresh out of prison after 24 years and returns to become President of the country that put him there in the first place.
This country is South Africa and racial tension could not be higher and the country could not be more divided . So when Mandela becomes President, he does not seek revenge on South Africa. Instead, he wants to unite the country and for of its citizens to forgive and move forward. He starts with his security guards and wants to spread the peace throughout the rest of South Africa.
This brings me to the Springbok rugby team and their captain Francois Pienaar (Damon). The rugby team was all white except for one player, Chester. The Springbok team was a team that all the blacks cheered against, even Nelson Mandela at one point in his life. But Mandela wants to change that. He wants the Springboks to win a Rugby World Cup. At first, this seems to be asking too much. However, a transformation takes over the team and soon the country of South Africa. If the Springboks win the Rugby World Cup, it not only would be the biggest win of their lives, but a step in the right direction for a healing country.
What a story this is to tell on film. It is amazing the circumstances and pressure that everyone endured during this time. Mandela put a lot on the shoulders of their rugby team, but he quite a bit of weight on his own. This team was used by Mandela to unite South Africa or at least begin to, but only winning the Rugby World Cup would be acceptable. Nothing less.
Morgan Freeman may not have had any make-up used on him because he looks perfect for the part of Nelson Mandela. No one else would even come close to portraying such a man like Mandela. Freeman plays Mandela as a confident, forgiving, hopeful and wise man. He is patient with himself and his country. He seems to be asking a lot out of his citizens, but he leads by example. He only asks them to do something that he has done himself. I have read where people have said Morgan Freeman was born to play this part. I would have to agree.
Matt Damon has become a master of disguise this year in his performances. A few months ago, Damon was chubby with a hairpiece and a mustache in The Informant! And he was simply brilliant in the role. In this film, he has a South African accent that is almost distracting at first and bright blonde hair. His role is a supporting one, but a major part in this film. It is up to his character, Francois, to lead his team to winning a Rugby World Cup. But not only training harder, but changing what their team stands for. Change has to happen everywhere including the rugby team. And Damon can put another top-notch performance under his belt for 2009.
Freeman and Damon compliment each other on-screen. Their characters are men of change. They want a new attitude to go along with their new flag of South Africa. The world will get to see their new attitude on a grand stage if the Springboks can make it to the Rugby World Cup (and let’s face it we all know that they do!). And if they win, their country cannot be ignored.
Clint Eastwood got spectacular performers to tell a great, true story of forgiveness and change. Who could have imagined that a Mandela bio-pic would be mostly made up of rugby? But it is a fascinating look at Nelson Mandela. He turned a country around and it all started with him. South Africa was a country that learned how to forgive. A lesson that every country, including America, could learn from. This film is certainly relevant for the time we live in right now in the United States.
It is funny what sports can do for a person or a country for that matter. It is a thing that brings strangers together under one roof and all cheering for their team. People are rooting and cheering, and perhaps even celebrating all together as one. But this specific rugby match would do something more. This event would become bigger than most people involved, and definitely would become more important than anyone knew at the time.
The title, Invictus, comes from a poem that Mandela read during his time in prison. It gave him inspiration when he needed it. Right when he thought he could not go any further, this poem kept him standing. What this poem did for him, he and the Springboks did for others. I applaud the people involved with this film, and certainly the people who were actually there to make history.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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