The mere premise of Invictus stirs the soul: Confronted with a still hostile and divided population, South African president Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) encouraged and gently manipulated the underdog national rugby team (lead by Matt Damon as captain) from a predominantly white-South African passion to a unifying national cause. Director Clint Eastwood studiously avoids cues to heighten emotions, stripping most scenes of their musical score and declining to photograph South Africa in the usual sunny, golden colour palette. Some scenes land with a thud and if you aren’t knowledgeable about rugby the tension in the climactic game is hard to suss out, but Invictus is an interesting meditation on how an inspired citizenry is as necessary as political capital in rebuilding a nation.
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2009.
Cool! I’m sure Dino will be very happy about this.