The film opens in 1990 on the day Mandela is released from his 27-year prison sentence, when South Africa is on the verge of a civil war. Mr. Eastwood effortlessly sets up the film with a scene of white rugby players across a road from a group of black children. The rugby coach informs his squad, "this is the day the country went to the dogs".
Much has already been made of Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Mr. Mandela and, for once, the hype is not hyperbole. Mr. Freeman - who has played God in films twice as often as he's played the President of the U.S. - is no stranger to portraying revered figures on screen. As Mr. Mandela, the actor easily adopts the man's familiar cadence, but he also finds a new level of dignified calm outside the typical Freeman sweet-spot. His Mandela is kind and gentle, and at the same time he appears to carry the fate of a nation on his shoulders. The film falls happily shy of deification showing that, while he considered South Africa his family, Mandela's own personal life was in turmoil. Still, we learn little beyond that tidbit and almost nothing of his years of incarceration (the film's title is taken from a 19th-century poem Mr. Mandela kept with him in his cell).
As part of post-apartheid South Africa, the nation began to eliminate symbols of the old regime. A new flag was introduced, as was a new national anthem. The National Sports Council also set out to rename the Springboks, the nation's rugby team, a favorite of white South Africans (black South Africans tended to cheer for England). In what would become a watershed moment in South African history, Mr. Mandela not only opposed the renaming, but also met personally with the white coach of the Springboks, Francois Pienaar, and urged him to strive for the 1995 Rugby World Cup trophy.
The script, by Anthony Peckham from the book "Playing the Enemy" by John Carlin, has fun with the meeting between these two men. Mr. Mandela never actually says "go win the World Cup", but after the meeting his meaning is clear. As Pienaar, Matt Damon relaxes behind an uneven accent and some extra bulk.
The fact that these events actually happened is nearly as astounding as the fact that they haven't been made into a movie before. The World Cup game itself is tailor-made for a big tear-jerking finale. To Mr. Eastwood's credit, while he does fall victim to a few sports movie clichés (slow-mo, swelling strings), he doesn't overdo it. He has proven to be prone to heavy-handedness on occasion (ahem, "Mystic River"), but he gets out of the way here, keeping his camera as grounded as his storytelling. With the exception of a few distracting musical choices (Mr. Eastwood's son Kyle provided some original music), this is a director as at ease on the rugby field as he's been on the field of battle.
One could be forgiven for asking why Mr. Eastwood chose to make this movie now. But when a newspaper headline is noted to read, "He can win an election but can he run a country", the parallels to another politically groundbreaking black man are clear. A nation divided, a newly-elected landmark president - sound familiar? Mr. Freeman's Mandela is heard to say, "Forgiveness liberates the soul" and chooses "compassion over petty revenge". Is anyone listening?
| Movie title | Invictus |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2009 |
| MPAA Rating | PG-13 |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | If the fascinating true story of Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup isn't enough to make you see Clint Eastwood's solid new movie, Morgan Freeman's pitch-perfect portrayal of Mandela should be. |
