Movie Reviews  |  PG-13  |  View Trailer  |  Dec 11, 2009

Nelson Mandela was a formidable and caring leader. Quite possibly one of the most interesting and compelling people of our time. Clint Eastwood’s new film “Invictus” tells the story of Mandela, his rise to power, and his effort to unite his divided nation with the national rugby team.

As Mandela is elected president of South Africa, the country is embroiled in bitter racial segregation known as apartheid. Mandela’s first order of business is to try and bridge the gap between the blacks and the whites, and create a colorblind country, or what he calls “The Rainbow Nation.”

Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela, and will most likely earn an Oscar nomination for his role. He’s stoic, but loving. One of the more subdued, but powerful performances this year.

The black people of South Africa feel that it is their duty to change the way things are run. They try to start by renaming the Springboks, which is the national rugby team. Mandela intervenes, not wanting to change the name of something so dear to the white people of the country.

Francois Pienaar is the captain of the Springboks. He’s played by Matt Damon, who is largely inconsequential in this role. The screen time he does have isn’t much more than a few lines at a time, and the rest of it is him running up and down the rugby field. Mandela calls Pienaar to his office, wanting to discuss the upcoming Rugby World Cup that will be played in South Africa. Mandela wants the team to win, which he thinks will bring his nation together. If they can’t agree on anything, he’ll try to get them to come together over sports.

Mandela runs himself ragged trying to perform his duties, and at one point collapses during the film. Eastwood seems to have a similar work schedule. He’s been pumping out the dramas. This is his sixth film since 2004, and sadly it shows. There seem to be multiple directorial miscues within the film, for example as Mandela is flying high in a helicopter a Backstreet Boys sounding pop song about “colorblindness” suddenly invades the soundtrack. A pop song on an Eastwood soundtrack? Inconceivable!

While the movie coasts on the back of Freeman’s performance, the rest of it lacks the emotional punch that we’ve come to expect from Eastwood films. Instead it flounders around not knowing which direction to take. Another obstacle is that the majority of Americans do not understand the game of Rugby and will be lost during the fast-paced rugby scenes. Instead of building suspense during the climax of the games, instead it builds confusion in the minds of the audience. The rugby, for Americans, just doesn’t translate into emotional fodder.