Invictus

Invictus

Director: Clint Eastwood

Starring: Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

What could have been a brilliant masterpiece of incredible star power, Invictus was instead a wonderful and beautiful but slightly disappointing movie. I went in expecting brilliance like Grand Torino or Million Dollar Baby, instead I got Remember the Titans without the Remember part. I still reflect on the issues raised in Million Dollar baby, and I think about the dark sorrow in Eastwood’s classic Unforgiven. However with Invictus, while uplifting, I did not get that stirring power from other Clint Eastwood films.



Morgan Freeman does a great job as Nelson Mandela. He has the screen presence that makes him every ones father. He is a loving person who truly wants to mend the Apartheid that had ravaged South Africa. To do this he uses the rugby team that has always represented Afrikaners racism to unite blacks and whites. Matt Damon is the captain of the rugby team, and his part is more of a minor supporting character. He has a great accent and looked so much younger than the last Bourne film. Both stars were great. They used the script they were given to play strong roles on screen.
There were also a few other characters that had fun side plots. Mandela’s security force was mixed with black and whites and it created a little bit of tension. One big theme that was stressed a lot was the reverse racism that the black had towards the white Afrikaners. Mandela really stressed the importance of unity in the country and forgiveness instead of retribution.


The big problem with Invictus was there was no serious personal struggle. Other sports films make audiences sweat and bleed with the players. Remember the Titans made us feel the racism problems of the 60s in America and we connected to the problems coaches and players had. Invictus felt a little empty in the human connection category. It failed where Titans succeded; and instead of a film that makes you laugh and cry and love the characters, you get a movie that is kind of surface deep.



I enjoyed Invictus. There were some parts that were so uplifting and happy. It was not a bad movie both morally and technically, and it was a fulfilling movie. It was just forgettable. The movie had it ups and downs and it had some really good sports action, but it is not a movie that people will think and talk about a year from now. I really liked the themes of forgiveness and unity that were stressed in the script. But the biggest problem was the lack of connection in for the audience to the story and the characters. I recommend Invictus because it is a good feel good story. There was nothing immoral of bad about the film and there were some very uplifting scenes. I’ll give it a 7 out of 10, not bad, not great. Invictus just does not measure up the Clint Eastwood’s other masterpieces.



Sex/Nudity – 2 out of 3 – Some bare chested men in locker rooms. A few women are seen in cleavage revealing dresses. A woman goes into her husband’s hotel rooms; they kiss and the camera moves off of them, presumably they have sex.

Violence/ Gore – 3 out of 5 – There are some shots of violent riots (possibly real news footage), some rugby violence, and some racial tension.

Profanity – 5 out of 10 - The “S” word is used 10 times or so, there might have been 1 “F” word, however the strong accents made it pretty hard to tell, subtitles may reveal one more, I wasn’t sure. There are a few other religious exclamations.