Investigating Invictus...

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Created on Saturday, 06 March 2010 17:44

The film is a true story about how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country.

It is an accurate account but to be blunt its boring, dont get me wrong its an fantastic inspiring story were the leader of a nation cares so deeply for his country, he instills forgiveness which in turn heals a nation. And It is right for this story of such inspiring events and characters to be told. But for me this movie just didn't do it well. The director (Clint Eastwood) I feel trys too hard to be hard hitting ending up with a cliche laden performances and cinematography. This was not Matt Damon's finest hour, he had little dialouge most of which delivered with a frown before and a shrug of disappointment after his sentence as he tries to rally his troops. I found this movie more predictable than the 'Titanic', Was it just me that was compleley niave to think that there might be a few decent moments of Matt Damon actually playing rugby? Rugby fans prepare for disappointment, non-rugby fans prepare to make sure your car has petrol cause you are gonna wanna drive away from the cinema as fast as you can when Invictus bites you in the butt!!

There is a scene where the South African rugby team ('Springboks') go to a rural town and we see a Rocky type montage of Matt Damon teaching kids how to play rugby, the irony is painful. However the most exciting scene in the film for me was in the final third were the world cup final is being played and an airplane looks like its is on course to crash into the stadium, I was inside myself with excitement saying 'finally'!!! I was imagining that it was actually Jason Bourne playing rugby and that I was really watching the next 'Bourne' sequel. The threat of potential excitement from the airplane twist flies away, then the picture zooms back to Damon and I'm reminded that he is no longer Jason 'Bourne' but rather Jason 'Boring'.

To be fair Invictus did keep to the story and didn't add its own spice and the best thing about the movie for me was learning that little bit more about Nelson Mandela. That he was a conflicted man and had very real troubles with family and illness. He was flawed. We very rarely see the reality of the person on the pedestal, that they could have the same ups and downs as you or I. Nelson had a high call which it seems led him to sacrifice much of himself. My thoughts then migrate to Jesus and his own humanity, how he lived in the same world as us, breathed in and out the same that we do. Jesus must have made a couple of tables and chairs that just sucked!!!, he must have got it wrong and missed a nail once or twice and hit his thumb and yelped in pain.

I get comfort to think that i could potentially share similar experiences or problems with such a great man as Nelson Mandella, that i could say..'Nelson, I've got this going on in my life right now' and there's a chance he could understand. But to be able to be so alike the Saviour of humanity!!! something doesn't seem to add up. I read a line in a book once that said that Jesus was just like us and that if we accept that to be true we have have to also realize that we are just like him. I would be ecstatic if Nelson called me up one day and said ' you wanna hang out?' if a man like him actually wanted to get to know me.... But how can Jesus want me?? i shouldn't be so surprised because a gap has been bridged somewhere and somehow, through this thing called the Spirit, Jesus actually likes us and wants us to talk to him about things.

But back to the review, I suspect there obviously issues about twisting truth to make spectacle and entertainment when making movies about true stories. Take Hotel Rwanda, powerful story great movie. Invictus, powerful story, not a good movie. This true story is better left as a memory and not as wasted fiver or one more in the future dvd collection.