Movie review: Invictus
Director: Clint Eastwood.
Certificate: 12a
Main stars: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon.
Invictus is Latin for ‘unconquered.’The dictionary defines this as ‘unbeaten and undefeated’, words that truly describe this powerful movie about courage and the ability to stand in the face of ridicule and criticism from friend and foe. It is also the name of a poem written by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903); ‘I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul’. What powerful words and to be quoted by Morgan Freeman in his excellent portayal of Nelson Mandela.
I went to see ‘Invictus’ at the end of January 2010. From the time advertising began for this movie it was in my opinion a ‘must see’. I am not as you would say an avid reader, but I was very interested to learn more about this part of South African history and the faces that represented that time (1948-1994). I believe the ‘apartheid’ is a lesson in history everyone should learn about as a reminder of how low humanity can stoop. Mandela was a man who represented love for all men and it reminds me of another great man in history who said ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.
During the whole ‘2 hours 13 minutes’ at no point did I regret purchasing the tickets for Invictus. The fact that the movie house refused to sell us popcorn at the upstairs till did not in any way infringe my perspective of this movie either.
‘And what for Mr Damon?’ you may ask. Well ‘our Matt’ (as us Bristolian’s like to say), was both stunning and excellent as ‘Francois Pienaar’. I won’t mention about the accent (having many south African friends I think authorises my saying this), but he was inspirational in his approach to this character; full of potential flaws and weaknesses and yet destined for greatness, his determination carried the rugby team to success and caused the nation to cheer ‘together’ for the first time in 46years. I walked out of the movie feeling ‘proud to be a south African’ and yet I am British! For a second I sighed…..but ‘Go SA!’
In my opinion this movie should be viewed as many times as possible and when the DVD comes out I may just have to buy it for my husband on his birthday.
If you want to find out more about how south African rugby made it big or the inner strength and endurance of such a respected man in authority (Nelson Mandella), and even learn a lot about how to become a real ‘leader’ (not just a ‘title’) then this movie is for you.
