"Mandela rocked 'em all."
- EDITOR'S NOTE: I thought about this a little more...-
How awesome is Clint Eastwood? Not only can he can create a successful crowd-pleaser ("Gran Torino," "Dirty Harry," about a dozen others), but he can apparently film a good sports story, and still make his audience think. That is the achievement of his latest, "Invictus." This is a historical, cultural piece about Nelson Mandela's involvement with Francois Pienaar and the South African rugby team's goal of winning the 1995 World Cup.
Admittedly, the film is highly uneven. Is it all biopic? Is this racial tension reconsidered? Well, it presents many angles, but the best way to look at "Invictus" is as complicated sports saga. Can a game unite folks in such a way that transcends race, class, gender and other social situations. Well, you can't prove a "yes" to that question. But by the end of "Invictus," you really think any game can bring folks together. Even if there are no great moments. And Matt Damon is kinda useless.
Game on. Clint Eastwood's signature no-nonsense style and thoughtfulness is on display and it suits the film nicely. As a racial drama, it's patient, thoughtful and conscientious of its audience. As a sports film, "Invictus" is straight-forward, un-showy and well paced.
- The script is a little shaky as it starts one way, ends another, and is guilty of some time-tested sports movie regularites. There's a big, bad opposing team in the final game. Conflict is halted by the team leader. There's training montages. But there are other points — the memorizing of team mate names, the fact that it's a friggin' rugby movie — that individualize this movie.
- The movie actually gets better and better as it progresses. In the end, everything just makes sense, despite our objections to familiar narrative tropes. Than again, it is just a sports movie in the end. But a nice one.
- Morgan Freedom rolls, and this could be a nice push towards his first Best Actor (not just supporting). You'll believe Nelson Mandela was a complicated, kind man. I've already been wikipedia-ing the dude.
- Uh, if Francois was to lead by example, what good did he do on his own? Mandela gave him all the right notes.
- This is probably the racial sports film I wanted to see in "The Blind Side."
