Invictus: A movie about Mandela. And rugby.

“Invictus” is one of those rare beasts: a rugby movie. There was “Alive” – about a rugby team whose plane crashes in the Andes – but that was more a tale of grim survival than of rugby union. In fact in many ways “Invictus” is not really a movie about rugby either. It is more properly described as a movie about a quest for national reconciliation told through the prism of the 1995 rugby World Cup in South Africa. It is a quest headed by a man – Nelson Mandela – who believes in rugby’s potential as a unifying force in the post-apartheid era despite the fact that many of his countrymen resent the sport for its associations with white rule. Mandela (Morgan Freeman) finds an ally in Boks’ captain François Pienaar (Matt Damon) who is receptive to his vision for the new rainbow South Africa. And so the story unfolds.

For those movie-goers who do not already know the outcome of the 1995 World Cup, we will not reveal too many spoilers. Rugby fans will not need any reminder. Suffice to say that, with Mandela supplying the moral fibre as the country’s President, a nation becomes gripped with excitement as the South Africans advance through the tournament toward what is hoped will be an improbable victory, racial barriers being broken down along the way.

Placed in the wrong hands, this is a movie that could have got it horribly wrong – and been far too clumsy. Indeed, it is perhaps not totally immune to the latter charge at times. But under the direction of Clint Eastwood it is a thoughtful treatment that does not become overly pompous, nicely combining the politics with several (more or less convincing) rugby sequences and a fair few lighter moments, laced with a lingering undercurrent of potential threats to Mandela’s personal safety. Mandela is also treated tastefully – giving him a proper sense of historical gravitas, and many a word of wisdom, without resorting to an excessively indulgent portrayal.

At times the movie even succeeds in overcoming its most unavoidable weakness: the suspension of disbelief required to see Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, rather than just Morgan Freeman. The accent comes and goes but it’s probably as good a job as any actor could have done on a figure of such immense recent prominence. (Mandela had apparently named Freeman when once asked which actor he would want to play him). Damon meanwhile bears an adequate passing resemblance to Pienaar and manages to pull off a decent South African accent, though again a certain suspension of disbelief is required.

By the end the picture is arguably a little too rosy, as if to suggest that all the country’s ills have been cured overnight. But the movie is what it is – a cinematic description of a certain period in time – and perhaps it would be fairer to say that it does not purport to do more than convey a sense of joy and hope: a beginning, one might say, as much as an end in itself. Having seen “Invictus”, this reviewer was left looking both back and ahead. Back, wanting to get my hands on a DVD of the original action from 1995 so that I could re-examine it with a sense of historical context that I probably missed at the time (the complacency of youth); and ahead, to this year’s soccer World Cup in South Africa, which will be a key litmus test of the actual progress made since those heady days of 1995. That the movie achieves this much confirms it as a success.

 

“Invictus” has already been released in several countries and will come out in the UK on 5 Feb 2010.

Comments

[theoutsider]

Looks like both rugby and Mandela have been deemed worthy of Oscar attention - both of the movie's stars have been nominated. It was a good flic, but I wouldn't have gone that far.....guess historic figures and difficult accents are a shoo-in for hollywood awards.

[worldinmotion]

For more rugby-related movie info:
http://wesclark.com/rrr/rugby_movies.html

[Charles le Roi]

for another take on the importance of sport, i thoroughly recommend reading 'More than just a game: Football vs Apartheid'.

to visit South Africa now and to see the passion for sport is to imagine just how the sport sanctions of yesteryear must have hurt the ugly apartheid regime. (it is also brings home just how much contempt should be felt for those who sought to break those sanctions at the time..).