Eastwood delivers another masterpiece with ‘Invictus’
If Clint Eastwood continues to make great movies that are
released just in time for the awards season, I think I’ve found a
new January tradition. I finally managed to see
”
Invictus
”
this weekend, the latest film by the director, which has been
out in limited release for a few weeks. Some might say the movie is
a sports film. Others might say it is political. It is really about
a man who spent half his life in prison, who turned the other cheek
and tried to usher a time of peace into post-Apartheid South
Africa.
Eastwood delivers another masterpiece with ‘Invictus’
If Clint Eastwood continues to make great movies that are released just in time for the awards season, I think I’ve found a new January tradition. I finally managed to see “Invictus” this weekend, the latest film by the director, which has been out in limited release for a few weeks. Some might say the movie is a sports film. Others might say it is political. It is really about a man who spent half his life in prison, who turned the other cheek and tried to usher a time of peace into post-Apartheid South Africa.
Eastwood seems to be on a streak. Last year’s “Gran Torino,” which I saw in January, was nominated for several Golden Globes. “Invictus” has been nominated for three Golden Globes, and though the Oscar nominations haven’t been released I would be shocked if Morgan Freeman, Eastwood and perhaps Matt Damon don’t get a nod from the Academy.
I know more about Nelson Mandela, apartheid and South Africa than the average movie viewer. I spent a summer there as a graduate student and worked as a student intern at a newspaper in Cape Town. Before the trip, my fellow students and I had a long reading list about South African history and politics. But from the reactions of my family members, a deep understanding of the country is not necessary to understand the inspiring message of the movie.
The movie starts in full force in 1994, after Nelson Mandela is elected president, the first black African to hold the post in South Africa since before the apartheid-era began. During apartheid, members of the African National Congress – Mandela’s political party – lived in exile or in prison. Mandela himself spent nearly three decades in a small cell on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town. He was released in 1990 and four years later was elected President. People stood in line for more than eight hours to cast their votes, some for the very first time in their lives.
The movie focuses on Mandela’s first year in office, and on a surprising issue he takes up early on. Rugby is the national pastime in South Africa – at least for the white population. And one of the first things the African National Congress wants to do in an act of revenge is change the name and colors of the team that they say represents their years of oppression. But Mandela takes a difference stance, that they should surprise their countrymen by allowing the Springboks (named after a type of antelope) to keep their name and colors.
Though it may seem silly for a leader with such heavy things on his plate to get involved in a sporting issue, Mandela’s move is much more shrewd. He tells his assistant, Brenda (Adjoa Andoh) that he needs to keep the white populous content because they still control the economy, the police and the army. But Mandela also sees the upcoming rugby world cup, which takes place every four years, as an opportunity to change the opinion of South Africa on the world stage. The tournament includes 12 teams from 12 countries, broadcast around the world. It was a chance to encourage other countries to again invest in the South African economy after years of economic sanctions.
Of course, at the time when Mandela became President, the Springboks had been playing horribly. They had an automatic qualification for the tournament but weren’t expected to make it past the quarterfinals.
Mandela invited the team captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) to tea one afternoon. Pienaar, a white Afrikaner, doesn’t know what to expect from the meeting. And Mandela doesn’t exactly come right out and say what he wants. He just talks about how leaders need to inspire their people. He recalls a poem, “Invictus,” by William Ernest Henley, that helped him get through his time in prison. The prose is fitting for a political prisoner, and especially poignant for me since I’ve visited the cell in which Mandela stayed for nearly as many years as I’ve been alive.
“It matters not how strait the gate.
How charged the punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
Francois leaves the meeting unsure exactly what the president wanted. “I think he wants us to win the world cup,” he tells his girlfriend.
Much of the rest of the movie is split between Mandela’s tireless work to change his country, with his bodyguard detail following along behind him, and the Springbok training sessions. There are a few sequences of rugby that go on for a bit too long for me – it’s a sport that seems even more confusing and brutal than American football. But there are scenes with a quiet reflection, such as the one in which the Springbok team members visit the prison on Robben Island.
Freeman and Damon do an amazing job in their roles, with accents that are nearly spot on, and a cast of African actors rounds out the film. The result of the world cup may not have transformed South Africa overnight, but Mandela’s commitment to peace instead of revenge created a country that was still full of hope when I visited it 10 years after his election.
Melissa Flores can be reached at mf*****@pi**********.com. For more on movies, TV and food, see her blog online at melissa-movielines.blogspot.com.
