Based on the book of the same name by the esteemed author John Carlin, Invictus is Clint Eastwood’s re-telling of the early months of Nelson Mandela’s reign as president of South Africa and his attempts to use rugby as a means of uniting a nation still divided by racism and ill-feeling after the apartheid regime.
The size of the task confronting Mandela is made clear early in the film when he attends a pre World Cup warm up match between the South African rugby team (the Springboks) and England. Mandela narrowly avoids being hit by food and drink thrown at him by the white section of the crowd, while the black people in the audience revel in the fact that the Springboks are losing quite heavily, especially as rugby was seen as the preserve of the wealthy (i.e. the white population) in South Africa.
Mandela’s commitment to the task at hand is illustrated by his insistence that the Springbok emblem and flag remain in spite of pretty stiff black opposition and his interaction with the captain Francois Pienaar, to whom he quietly stresses just how important winning the tournament would be to the nation.
Eventually Mandela’s methods begin to bear fruit as the black population in the country begin to warm to the team thanks to a concerted effort by the players, led by Pienaar, to immerse themselves among the local population and the fact that one of their important players, Chester Williams is a black man.
The tale behind the film is an inspirational one and although it is conveyed to an extent in the film, something didn’t seem quite right. It almost seems too cheesy to believe that a sport that was long despised by a large part of the population could suddenly unite a nation so quickly, or at least it comes across that way on screen.
It’s no fault of the cast that the film doesn’t quite work. Morgan Freeman is excellent and nails Mandela as an authoritative leader with the common touch and he doesn’t do a bad job on the accent either. Matt Damon as a South African rugby player sounds like something that could go horribly wrong, but his accent is spot on, he bulked up to look the part and he even earned a best supporting Oscar nomination for his efforts.
As far as the rugby itself goes, it’s actually not too bad but the die-hards will be unimpressed by some of the technical skills of the players on show, particularly the kicking.
The timing of the DVD release of Invictus would seem appropriate given that South Africa is the centre of the sporting universe yet again, but we can’t help but feel that our experience of the film bears a close resemblance to our experience of World Cup 2010 so far: It’s got big names and good intentions but ultimately, a big disappointment.
Conor Heneghan
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