At first sight, it would seem implausible that an actor-director like Clint Eastwood — whose career soared on the theme of violence and revenge (Raw Hide, a series of spaghetti westerns, and Dirty Harry) — could be capable of producing the rousing, inspiring true story told in his latest film Invictus.
Invictus explores one crucial moment in the history of South Africa — the early to mid 1990s, when the racially torn and apartheid divided nation had to wrestle with hatred, poverty, and the powerful economic and political divisions as well as the struggle for power from either side.
As only logical, retribution — to varying degrees — is deeply embedded in the hearts of the black majority, once Mandela came to power after 27 years in prison in solitary confinement. Years of discrimination, injustice, unbelievable brutality and mutual abomination could not be wiped off by decree. Nelson Mandela, once freed and elected president of a nation rocked by political and economic instability, social division and rancor, found himself in the far from easy position of trying to bring the two sides together, at least by a modicum of tolerance. The word reconciliation was in no-one’s mind.
Adapted by South African writer Anthony Peckham from a book by former London Independent journalist John Carlin, Invictus is a moving account of how Mandela, helped by Afrikaneer team captain François Pienaar (Matt Damon, wisely not gym-pumped), had the political and human vision to turn a World Cup rugby match into a moment of colour-blind solidarity.
The film opens with a key scene: shortly after coming to power, Mandela catches a newspaper headline that asks a question which everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, has an answer for: “Mandela has won but... will he be able to govern?”
Mandela faced a monumental task — reconciliation, forgiveness, coaslence — but was staunchly determined to materialize it to as largest an extent as possible.
Carlin’s book, crafted into a tight film script by Peckham, gives Eastwood the chance and the challenge to reconciliate Mandela the man with Mandela the politician and public emblem of peace and unity, a true martyr and hero who chose — apparently without hesitation — to utilize, at least for as a long a spell as he could, the universal language of sport, rallying South Africa’s national rugby team, the Springboks, whose name alone spelled disgust and abhorrence among the opressed black majority, to their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship.
Not unlike the ill-fated Martin Luther King, Mandela too had a vision: not a rosy reconciliation between oppressors and their victims, but rather some sort of pact or truce whereby each side would try and make an effort to build a nation. Mandela had a hard time convincing his close black aides that the Springboks — made up of Afrikaneers who stood for the supremacy of the white minority — could and indeed would embody and prove themselves the cohesive power of a symbol. The automatically hated bright green shirts of the Springboks mirrored the flag revered by whites and looked at with repulsion by blacks.
Mr. Eastwood proved beyond any doubt his directorial skills with films like Unforgiven, Mystic River or Gran Torino, both dealing with his familiar theme of crime and revenge. The question, not unlike that caused by Mandela’s rise to power, was whether or not Eastwood had the technical ability and human concern to tackle a story of humane preoccupations.
But Eastwood came out with flying colours: Invictus, indeed, is a triumph of a movie that does not indulge in the easy-going power of an epic sports movie.
Rather than portraying Mandela as a one-sided, larger than life, cardboardish personality, Invictus is an attentive study in the unbreakable will and determination of a man who knew better, even after, or precisely because of, his 27 years of unjust incarceration.
The life story of such a man could not be encapsulated into one single movie, however long, and the whole story of a nation and its conundrums could not be summed up into a narrative packing facts, opinion, details and sidelines.
Invictus cleverly maintains its focus on this key moment in the history of a nation struggling to come to terms with years of hatred and apartheid, discrimination and injustice. It took one man with Gandhian vision to foresee, against all odds and everyone’s disbelief, that a sports event could help glue together the two sides of a nation: oppressors vs oppressed, a white minority wary of losing its privileges, and an entire black people claiming for retribution.
True, the story told by Peckham’s book and its retelling in Eastwood’s film is difficult to palate as the symbol of a much, much complicated story that runs the whole span from, to put it mildly, mutual suspicion and distrust, to interracial love, understanding and national unity.
But the story told by Eastwood, with scenes of a maid and her mistress, Mandela’s black bodyguards and their white counterparts, shaking hands and embracing when the Springboks win the historical final, as though no traces remained of segregation and mutual fear, scores a true victory.
Eastwood’s Invictus, helped by Morgan Freeman’s restrained, serene performance that closely mirrors Mandela’s wisdom and plans to look ahead to the future, turns suspension of disbelief into a material reality.
Invictus, with all its predictable twists and stories of personal transformation — convincingly embodied by the Matt Damon character — is a hypnotically fascinating story of the triumph of human tolerance over years of brutal oppression. Aware as we all are that apartheid mostly spawned monsters rather than malleable personalities in tune with the changing times, Invictus, with rousing, haunting music by Kelly Eastwood and Michael Stevens, gathers momentum as captain Pienaar — and, by extension, the whole Springbok team — undergoes a personal transformation after meeting a man bent not on revenge but on reconciliation and peaceful understanding.
We’re all fully aware that there’s no limit to humankind’s greed and incapacity to care for, even less so love, its own fellowmen, but Invictus — courtesy of Eastwood’s temperate moviemaking talent — makes it a point that, come certain circumstances, solidarity and concord are indeed possible.
Who else but morgan freeman?
US actor Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr. (born June 1, 1937) is also an accomplished film director and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanour and authoritative speaking voice, qualities which helped him land the roles of men renowned for their leadership capacity or their restrained but unhindered beliefs.
In the 1960s, Morgan worked a number of odd jobs — such as script clerk at a community college — to performer in a dance company.
It was not until the 1980s that Freeman began to gain wide recognition for his steady body of work.
He auditioned for and obtained the role of the faithful chauffeur in Driving Miss Daisy, which cemented his big screen career.
His next big role was in The Shawshank Redemption, but it was not until teaming up with director Clint Eastwood in the critically acclaimed Million Dollar Baby (2005) that Freeman won a Best Actor Oscar. He had previously worked with Eastwood in the critical and box office hit western Unforgiven, and also played leading roles insuch blockbusters as Seven, Deep Impact, and The Sum of all Fears.
A select audience was treated to a January 19 avant-premiere of the film Invictus at the Cinemark near Alto Palermo, organized by the South African Embassy and Standard Bank with the stellar presence of former Springbok scrum half Joost van der Westhuizen - scorer of a record 38 tries but none as important as the pass permitting the late drop goal giving South Africa the 1995 Rugby World Cup triumph which is the subject of the film.
The occasion was also addressed by South African Ambassador Tony Leon, a former opposition leader who was among the 65,000 in Ellis Park on that "nation-building" day. He reminded his audience that we are close to the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release - the film's starting-point. Leon concluded by expressing the hope that one great South African World Cup might lead to another - this year's FIFA mega-event.
As an eyewitness to the film's events, Van der Westhuizen assured the audience that 95 percent of the story told by Invictus is true and only five percent Hollywood. He paid tribute to Mandela's achievement in making one team and one nation out of a country with 11 official languages, summing up the film's message as the idea that "everybody can make a difference."
MS
Finding inspiration
Morgan Freeman was widely regarded as the obvious choice when it came to casting the role of Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus. Freeman, indeed, possessed all the qualities needed of an actor who had to convincingly transmit the greatness and also the human flaws of a man considered a martyr and a hero at national and international level. Preceded by his long career, crowned by his knockout performance in Million Dollar Baby, Freeman had no true competitors vying for the role of Mandela.
Although Invictus was a cherished project of Eastwood’s after 2008’s Gran Torino, many doubted the actor-director’s capacity to handle a story in which violence did not generate more violence and thirst for revenge — his trademark roles in the Dirty Harry saga, the Sergio Leone-directed spaghetti westerns, as well as his own Mystic River, which spelled revenge through every pore of the Sean Penn character.
But Eastwood’s craftmanship as a director knows no boundaries. His Invictus comes out, indeed, as invincible proof of his dexterity and deft hand tackling projects that could easily turn into cliched tearjerking dramas.
Invictus, much like a sports game, does build momentum in crescendo, to the tune of atmospheric music that shows Eastwood’s lesser known facet as composer and music performer. Invictus is yet another feather in Cleastwood’s undisputed status as one of Hollywood’s most bankable and talented writer-producer-actor-director.
Matt Damon was not the obvious choice to play Springboks captain François Pienaar. He had his breakthrough with Good Will Hunting, after which a string of quite dissimilar roles were offered to him.
After unwise castings as adventure film lead (The Bourne Ultimatum, Ocean’s Eleven), he was Eastwood’s pick for the role of Pienaar.
Under Eastwood’s direction, and after strenuous diction coaching in South African English accent, Damon’s uniformly grey acting became an asset rather than a burden.
As Pienaart, Damon is perfectly unrestrained, and filled with the humane concerns of a man in the process of change.
Source: buenosairesherald
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