Review

Review Date: 13-December-09
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Invictus (2009)

Clint Eastwood the director seems to have turned into a well-oiled machine, cranking out a polished picture (likable or not) on an average of once per year. A mechanical air hovers around his latest film, Invictus. The parts are recycled, if fitted together in innovative ways, and it feels like a work of craft rather than creativity. Yet Eastwood's skill is effective when applied to a good story, so although Invictus plays like propaganda — for the power of sport, the legacy of Nelson Mandela, and political integrity in general — it exerts an irresistible pull on the mind and emotions.

Eastwood taps pal Morgan Freeman to play Mandela just after he was released from prison and elected to the South African presidency. Already advanced in age, Mandela takes the reins of a country literally torn apart by racial hatred and negatively viewed by the world because of it. The movie cleverly brings the viewer into the culture through Mandela's bodyguards, a merged crew of angry blacks and grudging whites who eye each other almost as warily as they scan crowds for assassins. These guys illustrate what the old man is up against and track the changes he inspires as the movie progresses.

Thanks to the presence of his right-hand woman (Adjoa Andoh) we are assured that Mandela is addressing issues like economy and trade, but the story is chiefly interested in his work on the nation's soul. The South African rugby team, the Springboks, has long been a symbol of white supremacy whose standing is fading with apartheid. While newly enfranchised blacks are eager to do away with it, the president views its resurrection as a means of uniting his people as a whole. To this end he recruits the team captain (Matt Damon) to share his vision. In a stirring encounter, he assures the jock that if you make people believe they are better than they think they are, they will improve in accordance with their (or your) conviction. No coach could give a better pep talk, and Mandela's words start permeating the country.

In one short year the Springboks turn themselves around, rising in the ranks and serving as role models to all South Africans, just in time for the Rugby World Cup to land on their doorstep. Invictus, it turns out, is one of those underdog sports movies that can make an audience cheer even if they have no idea how the sport is played. But more is at stake here than a small town's pride or a young man's dreams. Behind the cheers is a globe-altering philosophy of advancement and forgiveness. "He's a man with a man's problems" one of Mandela's bodyguards says, but Eastwood does not want you to dwell on that. His Nelson Mandela is a sage who points the way to enlightenment in grunty, crowd-pleasing terms, and (arriving in time for Christmas) his conviction makes you believe.

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