• Howick and Botany Times
INVICTUS. Rated: PG: Contains coarse language. Running time: 133 mins. Times rating:
So here goes. Clint Eastwood’s latest film Invictus is an account of Nelson Mandela’s attempt to heal his fractured homeland by having the citizens of South Africa rally around a common cause.
While the instrument he uses, the nation’s rugby team, is unorthodox, what’s more amazing is that his plan actually worked. Four years after serving a 27-year prison sentence, Mandela (Morgan Freeman) is elected president of South Africa, inheriting a fractured country, rife with problems and on the verge of civil war.
To heal the wounds of apartheid, and to unify the populace he focuses on the nation’s Springbok rugby team. Enlisting the help of the team’s captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), he charges them to win the Rugby World Cup of 1995, which the country is hosting, so the eyes of the world can see a nation united.
In Eastwood’s sure hands the story slowly builds to a satisfying conclusion. As the players wrestle with their own prejudices and doubt, Mandela guides them towards becoming a better version of themselves.
It’s hard not to feel a lump in your throat when you see Pienaar and his players placed in a rugby clinic with impoverished youngsters in the middle of a slum, or witness two hardened police officers, side-by-side with a black street urchin, cheer the Springboks on.
Always sincere, the film earns our respect particularly during its exciting climax, the World Cup final between South Africa and New Zealand, to which Eastwood devotes a half hour of screen time. The only drawback to this is as Kiwi’s we’re made to relive that traumatic loss again.
Freeman tackles this role with the professionalism and skill we’ve come to expect from him. His demeanour is stately as well as humble. Damon matches him, showing Pienaar’s growing confidence in himself as a player and a man. Seeing these two pros share the screen is truly a treat.
Genuinely moving, Invictus proves to be one of the year’s best as it perfectly captures the transcendent power of sport as well as that of the human spirit.
– Scotty Moorhead
