'Invictus': A Potent Mix of Sports and Politics

Having watched as many sports movies as I have over the years, I generally know how the movie is going to end, as do most audience members. But, so long as you enjoy the journey to get to the not-so-surprising payoff, you can count the movie a success. That's how I see the Clint Eastwood-directed Invictus. It's a fascinating look at a part of South African history that I was unaware of — how the rugby team's run toward the World Cup in 1995 helped bring the nation together in the wake of Nelson Mandela's election as president following his nearly thirty year imprisonment.

Cast Lowdown:

The two leads, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, carry the movie, with Freeman doing most of the heavy lifting. He perfectly displays Mandela's seeming inner calm in the midst of the hurricane of political and personal events swirling around him. Eastwood has directed Freeman twice before, in Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, the second of which brought Freeman his first Oscar win, so it's clear the two work well together.

While Damon doesn't have the height of the real Francois Pienaar, the rugby team captain he portrays, he has the bulk so that he at least looks like a rugby player, and delivers a spot-on accent as well. His is a generally subdued performance, something Damon is comfortable with, much like his Jason Bourne roles — when he's not beating the crap out of someone, of course.

Best Moment:

When the nearly all-white South African team, known as the Springboks, is ordered by Mandela to travel to the townships to teach black children how to play rugby. Despite most of the team not wanting to be there and a large percentage of the black population despising them as representative of apartheid, the children welcome the Springboks with open arms, thanks to the team's sole black member, Chester, whom the children surround as they cheer for him. This serves to loosen the team up and, as Mandela knew it would, help endear them to the black population.

Worst Moment:

What probably should have been the best moment, the climactic scene where the dominant All Blacks from New Zealand battle the Springboks for the championship in front of their home crowd, instead fell flat. Whether it's because rugby doesn't lend itself to being filmed in dramatic fashion or because the way the game actually ends isn't that riveting, it felt more anticlimactic than anything else.

Tonic Worthy?:

Without question. What both Mandela and the rugby team are able to do, separately and together, in a country trying to emerge from decades of apartheid rule that treated the majority population as second-class citizens, is truly inspirational.

Bottom Line:

Clint Eastwood is a director you can usually count on for watchable films that do their best to involve the audience in the drama unfolding before them. While he may have had some trouble with the rugby scenes, he picked a wonderful story to tell (with a script based on John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy) and did so quite effectively with two top-notch lead actors.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures