Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoInvictus
January 22nd 2010 12:21
In the the later years of his life Clint Eastwood has achieved something rather special, not only has he managed to preserve his status as an acting legend without tarnishing it (I love the fact that he has resisted trading off his reputation for an easy comedy ala De Niro or Bruce Willis) but he has also nurtured a long-standing career as a director to the point where his name has become associated with filmmaking just as much as it was with acting roles. Invictus is a bit of a curveball for Eastwood-the-director, most of his previous directing efforts have been firmly about Americana, war, crime or a combination of all three. This film breaks him out of his comfort zone by tackling both post-Apartheid South Africa and a decidedly non-American sport, rugby union.
Invictus picks up right after the democratic election of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) to office in a new post-Apartheid South Africa. Mandela has a hard road ahead of him - the whites (a minority population who still control the police, military and economy) fear that the injustice they visited on the blacks will be reversed onto them. Mandela defies expectations and seeks to win the favour of the whites by showing them that this country is theirs as much as it is the blacks', he sets out to win hearts and minds, hoping to teach each side to include the other for the benefit of South Africa's future. At the forefront of Mandela's intelligent efforts to unite a divided people is his refusal to dissolve the colours and emblem (the Springbok) of the Boer sporting teams. Now that South Africa has entered a new era of equality they are finally being allowed to play sports at an international level again, and Mandela makes it his personal mission to have the Springbok rugby team win the upcoming World Cup.
There have been many films about the injustices of South Africa over the years (Gandhi, Cry Freedom, A Dry White Season, etc, etc) but it was long overdue for the rest of the world to get to see a film about the country's triumphs after it's adversities. The point of Invictus is not to look at it as a biopic unneccessarily focused on sport, but as a sports movie with a more significant added dimension of historical relevance. A sports movie where the stakes - the future of a country looking for a new source of pride - are higher than ever. It would be easy to dismiss this film as a flippant side story connected to a serious subject, but the script gets to the heart of the matter by demonstrating Mandela's brilliance for managing people and how he uses these skills to heal a fractured nation. Eastwood takes an interesting story and uses it to examine the wider context it sprang from.
Unfortunately, the rugby aspect of the movie is not it's strong point. It's patently clear throughout that this is shot by someone with little understanding of the game. I've read several American reviews that express befuddlement at the mechanics of the sport and (I'm giving American viewers the benefit of the doubt here) this isn't simply a case of them being unable to open their minds to a game that doesn't involve maximum padding. The rugby games are mostly shot as montages, with no emphasis on game continuity whatsoever. It's telling that there are no overhead shots too, I'm convinced that Eastwood has no concept at all of what actually happens in a rugby game. As a result, the twenty minute sequence of the world cup final at the end feels way too long and it's hard to feel any of the dramatic tension that Eastwood is trying to muster.
Thankfully this is a film that isn't solely concerned with sport. It's a film concerned with human drama, and Matt Damon's supporting role as Springbok captain Francois Pienaar exemplifies this in a commendably unshowy way. Who knew the guy could do an accent so well? The real revelation though is undoubtedly Morgan Freeman. As everyone says, it's hard to imagine anyone else ever portraying Nelson Mandela in a movie, but the surprising thing is that Freeman cuts out all his usual bullshit and tones down his natural warmth in favour of a more realistic portrayal. He changes his speech, his facial expressions - he actually defies the odds and brings a lot more to the film than just Morgan-Freeman-Playing-Nelson -Mandela. I genuinely didn't think he had it in him to ever play a role in a way this much outside his usual parameters. I was impressed.
This is a really good solid sports-drama about a powerful subject matter. What Eastwood misses in the technical rugby sequences he more than makes up in the human dimension, putting across a message and story without ramming it down the viewer's throat. A class act.
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