You can think if this as just another sports movie, but it’s not. It’s just another movie. Maybe if I was a fan of rugby I would have thought of it differently. Sure it was inspiring to a point, but if you want to see a great non-fiction sports movie that deals with race relations, rent “Remember the Titans”. If you want experience some of the true life events that led to Nelson Mandela’s post election popularity in South Africa, and his first step to bring peace to the post apartheid nation, then you will like Invictus. Mandela did have the right idea nothing brings people closer together then the joy of watching their team victorious. Just attend any one of the New York Yankees ticker tape parades in NYC and you will see what I mean.
Back in 1994, after Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) was elected President of South Africa, he knew that he needed a way to unite his country. He felt that his best option was getting them to connect by cheering for an under performing national rugby team to win the 1995 world cup. He enlisted the help of team captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) to get his team to be proud once again to be wearing their colors, and their country.
Clint Eastwood has always been a great director, as well as an iconic actor, but compared to many of his other films this one falls a little short. It was a good movie, but not a great movie. I think a great sports movie should give you chills when the crowd roars, or make you clench with anticipation for the title team to win it all. The message was there, but the drama was not.
Was I happy when they won? Sure. Did I care enough to jump on facebook and tell everyone to rent this as soon as possible? Nope. Sorry Clint, you’re good, and so was the movie, but I still expected better.
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