Invictus

I just wrote a bloody long review of this and lost it! I will summarise.

A film about Rugby and South Africa’s emergence from Apartheid excellently brought to the screen by Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman’s Mandella is well acted but accent a bit dodgy at times (Pharty will pick up on this straight away) Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar and is pretty good.

The great thing about this film is that it is based on a true story and highlights the vision that Mandella had. He knew that the Afrikaans were proud of their Springboks, they came to represent the Afrikaans. Mandella also knew that changing the name of the Springboks would alienate the Afrikaans, despite the overwhelming hatred from the non Afrikaans. He saw an opportunity to use port (and the greatest sport of all) to unite a nation, to oversee old differences, to be a vehicle for reconciliation. The amazing thing is that it did help stop South Africa becoming another Rhodesia and that is what makes this film stand out from other sports based films.

TBH, I normally watch sports films and think that the story is too contrived, especially American Sports films. Eastwood has managed to make a film that is touching and well crafted, the story was already there, the characters known. It takes a remarkable amount of skill to represent what really happened in a form that makes sense cinematographically and Eastwood has, in my opinion, done that. Yes the acting is a bit rough from the Springboks and it was amusing trying to work out who everyone was supposed to be, but I took a sense of joy from the fact that Eastwood Freeman and Damon made a really good effort at creating a film about a sport that I am passionate about.

Long Story short, if you like Rugby see this film, if you like a real tale of a man overcoming hatred and retribution and opting for forgiveness and reconcilliation, see this film. It is an excellent story well told.

8/10 (-1 for freeman’s accent)
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