Invictus is the latest offering from Clint Eastwood. The movie tells the story of the South African Rugby team in their historic Run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. It’s much more than that though. Although the back story is some what limited we join the story as Nelson Mandela has just taken power of the New South Africa, a South Africa after Apartheid.
For those who don’t know Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, it was a pretty unfair system which basically gave the majority Black population few rights and maintained a minority White rule.
When President Mandela took charge the country had many issues, it remained a nation that was racially and economically divided. Mandela decides that he can bring the country together through the universal language of sport. As the rugby world cup is in South Africa in 1995, a year after he takes charge, he decides to get behind the South Africa rugby team and try to inspire them and a nation to victory.
Morgan Freeman stars as the inspiring Mandela and although his accent seems to wander from time to time he does do a great job and really becomes Mandela during the movie, Matt Damon also puts in a solid performance as the South African Rugby captain Francois Pienaar.
So you’ve got an inspiring story and a good cast, does that make a good movie? Well not always, I’m certain this could have been an absolute mess of a movie but in the safe hands of Clint Eastwood’s it becomes a good, no sorry, great movie. I did feel that some of the slow motion scenes were a little too much at the end of the movie and I didn’t like the ghostly images of Mandela in the visit to the prison but I understood the point. These minor glitches though didn’t get in the way of a highly enjoyable movie, well worth a watch.
8
no comments yet
Leave your comment