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News Story - 05/02/2010

Cinema review: Clint Eastwood's Invictus

Milo Wakelin is impressed by this engaging biopic of Nelson Mandela, here played by Morgan Freeman, which takes the 1995 Rugby World Cup as its backdrop.

Among his many achievements, Nelson Mandela already has a modest film credit to his name, playing a Soweto schoolteacher in the closing moments of Spike Lee's Malcolm X (1992). On screen, Mandela has already been portrayed by Sidney Poitier in the 1997 TV movie Mandela and de Klerk, opposite Michael Caine, and by Dennis Haysbert in Goodbye Bafana (2007), but a big budget biopic has been overdue - and inevitable.

Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring the superlative Morgan Freeman, Invictus will surprise anyone expecting a Gandhi-style epic. Based on John Carlin's 2008 book Playing the Enemy, Invictus looks at Mandela's early time in power through the prism of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. It's an intriguing perspective, and Eastwood's characteristically apposite opening shot sets the scene: as Mandela's motorcade passes down a road, we see a perfectly-manicured school rugby field on one side and a dusty football pitch on the other. As the young rugby players look on with distrust, the soccer-playing children whoop and cheer.

South Africa was a nation divided by race, class and culture, but also by sport - and the yellow and green of the Sprinkboks rugby team was one of the most hated symbols of apartheid. Against all advice, Mandela staked his reputation by backing the team, and decided to use the World Cup to raise black aspirations and assuage white fears. Bad news for Springboks captain François Pienaar (Matt Damon), because his team didn't stand a chance of winning.

The result is an engaging mix of political drama and underdog sport movie. Freeman and Damon have already received Oscar nominations for their roles, and it's a real pleasure to watch these two different sized cogs turning in the wheels of history. Anthony Peckham's screenplay balances the personal with the political, and under Eastwood's assured direction - and the genuinely contagious excitement of the tournament - Invictus breezes through its 130 minute running time.

Shot on location in South Africa, including the grounds of Mandela's personal residence in Johannesburg, his prison cell in Robben Island, and Ellis Park Stadium, Invictus ably recreates the hopes and fears of the early days of the Rainbow Nation. The wary relationship between the black and white members of Mandela's personal bodyguard - who included former ANC rebels as well as their would-be oppressors - is one effective subplot among many.

As an actor, Eastwood may never shake iconic roles such as the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or the eponymous psychopathic cop in Dirty Harry (1971), but since his directoral debut, the psychological thriller Play Misty For Me (1971), Eastwood has emerged as a leading contemporary filmmaker.

In recent years, his films have demonstrated a range that continues to defy critic's expectations, and and Invictus caps a great decade which includes Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Flags Of Our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Gran Torino (2008).

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Cry, the Beloved Country (Korda, 1952)

Cinema review: Clint Eastwood's Invictus

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