Clint Eastwood’s newest master work is the near documentary “Invictus” a film that chronicles the life of Nelson Mandela in 1995 taking the reins as president of South Africa who hoped to bring his country together through the distant hope of winning the world cup. Through his mission he meets Francois Pienaar the captain of the country’s rugby team who is hitting a slump and is tasked with winning the cup. This view of Mandela is quite unique as Nelson Mandela is painted as someone who wasn’t interested in being liked. For most of the movie he is very much hated and is often viewed as a disgrace by foreign countries and his own people. All Mandela hoped in doing was unifying his people and stopping the war and violence at the expense of his own status quo. He defied orders and just wasn’t keen on giving up on humanity and his own people’s civilization.
This caused him to lose respect by many of his supporters. Through this Mandela became a controversial figure who was in constant physical threat by radicals and loyalists. Freeman’s performance is immaculate and even though he’s not exactly a resemblance to Mandela, his actions in this role cause him to resemble the man a great deal. Eastwood deals with greatness and potential controversy with such ease and he proves it by grabbing excellent performances by the aforementioned Freeman and Matt Damon who plays the voice to Mandela’s ideals. Many will question if Mandela’s views are too idyllic and we’re left to ponder if his intentions for his country was from a man seeing through rose colored glasses or a man who knew better than everyone what power the sport of Rugby had on society.
Juxtaposed is Rugby captain Francois Pienaar whose own idealism conflicted with his role as a captain and as a citizen in general. Like Mandela his resolve is met with constant scrutiny by his teammates whose slim chance at winning the cup left them jaded and cynical while Pienaar’s goals often tested their own loyalties to the team and how far they were willing to go through Pienaar’s leadership. Damon’s performance is of great humility as he leads by example and hopes to win the cup to help Mandela keep his people side by side instead of pitting them against one another. The cup is the McGuffin that symbolized unity and often provided a great weight on the shoulders of Mandela and Pienaar.
The sports scenes are dynamic as Eastwood sucks us in to the emotional games while the country’s team struggles through their emotions and slumps to win the cup. Often times the action is intense and Eastwood never shies away from the brutality of the game. This allows us to see how much the struggle weighs down the individuals who feel the championship is far from their grasps. Eastwood accomplishes a lot as one of Hollywood’s best directors and tackles this change in tone with pure skill and utter ease. It’s definitely a film that may just be playing the tune of Oscar next year. Sure to spark many debates among movie buffs and historians, Eastwood has done it again as “Invictus” is an interesting and powerful look at Nelson Mandela and the unity sports can accomplish. The cast is enormous and Eastwood’s depiction of Mandela will definitely shake some boots.