Invictus opens with a motorcade driving down the roads of South Africa carrying Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) from his prison for close to three decades. A short time later he would become President of South Africa. The problem for the new president is that he leads a nation that is torn apart on racial lines. There is a deep divide even on his staff, many of whom were kept from the past regime.Mandela needs something that can bring his country together in a way that no speeches and gestures could achieve. No, he decided to use the national rugby team and the upcoming world cup. The basic premise is the underdog story where the nation falls behind this one team and their quest for victory.
I knew absolutely nothing about rugby going into this movie. I still don't know much more than when I started watching the film, but director Clint Eastwood uses rugby as the MacGuffin in this film. Sure, the basic premise involves a rugby team, but that's like saying that North By Northwest is about the microfilm. It's about the journey getting from point A to point B. Even though the film follows team captain Francois Pinaar (Matt Damon), it's really the story of how the team was the tool to begin the reconciliation of the nation.
We all know how great a director Clint Eastwood is, but what's surprising about his projects is the way we never know what he's going to do next. Doing a movie about the end of apartheid from the standpoint of a rugby team is a gutsy move and would be a daunting challenge, especially in the eyes of todays movie viewer. Eastwood takes the ball and runs with, deliver yet another gem to his growing collection. It's not as great as Unforgiven or Mystic River, but it is worthy of the praise it gets.
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