INVICTUS Review

Actor’s director Clint Eastwood has got himself another winner. INVICTUS is inspiring, triumphant, and masterful. It’s one of those rare gems that will leave you in awe, not so much because of the technicalities but because of… the performances, the story and those little moments that overcome adversity and the impossible. How to unite a nation is in the core of this adaptation that will make you think of what makes a man great. The ever consistent Morgan Freeman once again shows us that there is nothing that he cannot do.

The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

The story mostly takes place outside of the field, President Mandela (Freeman) won the election but the question is whether or not he can run a country with 48 Million people, divided by tension that Apartheid left behind. Throughout the entire plot, Clint Eastwood teases us with little thrills and threats of danger, as if Mandela could get assassinated any second of the day. Eastwood doesn’t go astray from his usual filmmaking style. He’s even brought back his old friend, his go-to cinematographer Tom Stern (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby) who captures South Africa the way it may have looked in the 90s, there are plenty of stunning shots in this film including difficult angles from the rugby games themselves. Eastwood wants the camera to live and breathe within the frames of the actors’ facial expressions, plus being a former actor himself, he understands how to effectively approach characters and obviously Freeman and Damon are comfortable under his direction.

Once again, there is tension but unlike Unforgiven, Bloodwork, Changeling, and Gran Torino, where they would inflict some on screen physical pain, INVICTUS doesn’t aim to give you a punch in the face,… it doesn’t shy away from reminding us the injustices of past Apartheid mostly through dialogue instead of just flashbacks, but the movie is more about trying to move forward and the fear, the anger, and suspicions that hold that back, that keep progress and unity from happening. The screenplay by Anthony Peckham deserves a nomination because I think the side emphasis on Mandela’s personal security team is a success. It’s as if the condition of South Africa, between the blacks and the whites, is represented by how those bodyguards eventually come to trust each other.

Freeman is too tall to play Mandela but just like Frank Langella who played Nixon in Frost/Nixon, Freeman tries his best to mimic Mandela’s slow, soft-spoken speeches and his mannerism or his walk and wave but what Freeman ultimately accomplishes with INVICTUS is that he embodies Mandela’s heartache and aspiration. Eastwood touches Mandela’s longing for his family in this movie, being that he’d been divorced twice, which goes to show that Mandela is not a saint, he’s got his own personal problems but he also realizes that he’s got a bigger family to think about now and so that heavy responsibility is what Freeman bravely carries with grace.
If you’re worried Matt Damon’s accent will sound like Leo DiCaprio’s in Blood Diamond, there’s no need to worry, Damon is an excellent actor but not to belittle Damon’s great efforts, in the end, INVICTUS is Freeman’s limelight.

I was never a fan of rugby, so watching this movie gives me some kind of an appreciation for the game I previously misunderstood. One of the things I admire about INVICTUS that it is a movie about a revolution, not by war or violence but by reconciliation and forgiveness. It’s a story about a time to change and the people that change with it for the better. What makes a man great? Or the bigger question will be.. would INVICTUS be as impactful and powerful of a drama if it was just a generic biopic about Mandela from when he was a kid all the way to his rise to power? Maybe,.. but for now, I beg to differ.
“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’

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