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President Mandela (Morgan Freeman) praises rugby Captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) in Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus.” |
Clint Eastwood isn’t exactly the kind of director you’d expect to make an ABC-TV After School Special.
But he made one anyway. It’s a fairly good one, too.
It’s called “Invictus,” a restrained, feel-good historical drama merged with the conventions of a formula sports underdog story.
The former appeals to critics and awards; the latter appeals to popularity and box office.
Eastwood chases the best of both worlds in “Invictus,” a well-crafted drama that practically fawns over Morgan Freeman’s South African leader Nelson Mandela to the point of teary-eyed worship.
“Invictus” begins with Mandela being elected president of a once-white-ruled country that had left him to rot in prison for nearly three decades.
As he strolls through his new office, Mandela notices the white staffers from the previous regime have packed their belongings. To everyone’s shock, he tells them that they can stay. Not only that, but that they are needed by their suffering country, provided they are willing to work for its benefit.
More shocked are Mandela’s black security guards when the new president assigns a few tough-looking white guys to their team, mean-looking guys who undoubtedly abused if not tortured black prisoners under the previous Apartheid government.
Mandela calls it “reconciliation,” and his openly Christ-like leadership tests the nature of all South Africans by calling for an end to hatred and the beginning of unity. (Read more…)