Written by: Anthony Peckham
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Adjoa Andoh, Julian Lewis Jones
Rating: [3.5/5]
Uniting a nation under one common cause behooves many in trying to find one and above all, sports manage to always serve as this beloved source. A way for everyone to push aside all vitriol just for a match where they can unite under their flag in support. It’s what makes these international competitions like World Cups and the Olympics invaluable to national unity, and the way it plays out in Invictus within a nation split for valid reasons serves as a great testament to its power.
Following his release from prison and now ascension to presidency, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) must help manage a country divided amongst the white South Africans who still hold their deeply held racism and the Black South Africans who are not too quick to forgive the population who held them down for so many years. Desperate to find something to bring people together, Mandela reaches out to the captain of the Springbok’s, South Africa’s national rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) in the hope of garnering support all across the board as the country sets to host the Rugby World Cup.
Supporting a national team at a sporting event certainly does not solve all the systemic issues a country has, especially South Africa given its Apartheid system. The nation made the necessary changes at the top politically to move the country forward but it asks the major question of what can a leader do to bring his people together. His own security detail served as a microcosm of the entire situation and he could even barely control them and the issues they had with one another along the race line. If he cannot manage this detail then how could it scale up reconciliation amongst the rest of the populace.
Getting this national support around the Springbok’s, who in the eyes of Black South Africans were utilized as a symbol of their oppression appeared as just what was needed. This served as a two-sided approach by Mandela getting Pienaar to support this campaign and reach out to the Black communities never done before. As expected, plenty of tension arises from within his ranks and the sporting federation as a whole, but this journey has value and ultimately summarizes the inspirational message of this story as a whole. They hope to go from a Black South African population booing the Springboks when playing against England and bring all together to win a difficult upcoming tournament.
As with many sports films, this one seeks to create pockets of inspirational moments captured within the action. As someone who has tried watching rugby but cannot fully understand how it works without research, the film adequately manages the emotions of what these characters must do in order to win. While it does not capture the game of rugby particularly well, it proves adequate to dig into the emotional elements of what a victory at the World Cup would signify for this nation. No, it will not solve the deep-seated problems plaguing the country, but for at least one day it could provide a unity that may bring people together temporarily and hopefully serve as a foundation to a brighter future.
Inspirational just as it sought to be from the onset, Invictus hits all the right marks within the sports genre to entertain and display a nation in the middle of a tricky time in their history, Clint Eastwood, behind the director’s chair, does his thing as he usually does in pushing out competent films. He continues to display his ability to do this even at his age and with this story he allows Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon to capture the two integral figures of this story well as he builds up the intrigue of this situation in addition to the overall significance. None of this gets lost as we lead to the Rugby World Cup. Nothing about this film seeks to offend or really push any boundaries, which some may find dissatisfying because of the charged issue at the center of it, but his film sought to use sport as the necessary distraction it has served for centuries to allow these individuals to push forward and rebuild this nation united.
Films with Josh 
