What an inspiring story and I loved that it was a true story. How wonderful. What an amazing piece of history that so moved the hands of time. WOW!!!!

Invictus is a glorious film based on Nelson Mandela’s (Morgan Freeman, The Dark Knight) life as the South African President during his very early years of the presidency. Mandela’s main challenge as becoming President of South Africa in 1994 was “balancing black aspirations with white fears.” At this time the country still had some very STRONG racial tension that oozes out from every crevice.

Mandela takes some time out from his busy schedule to enjoy his country’s rugby union team, the Springboks and he notices all the blacks in the stadium cheering against their home team. In their minds, everything about the Springboks, right down to the colors they wear represents apartheid. Mandela is thinking this can’t be good and sets out to change all fear, resentment, anger and division that haunts his great nation. He knows that South Africa is to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup and he wants the underdog Springboks to win.

“Now come on” is what everyone is thinking because The Springboks are awful. They need a miracle to win. Mandela, being the inspirational and intelligent man he is, invites to his office for tea, the captain of the team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon, Ocean’s 13). In so many words he wants Francois to get his team fired up to be winners, take home the World Cup and possibly chip away at the race/class division through the common language of sport.

I had no idea how much I would learn about Rugby. It looks like a real brutal sport. No protection whatsoever. I was very surprised that so much of the game was shown.

I tell you Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) brought a really good story and directed it so beautifully. The actors were solid. Matt Damon did such a good job. He was very convincing. I thought he played Rugby. I bet he didn’t know a thing about it until he was casted.
Morgan Freeman truly looks like Mandela. I know of course that’s the idea, but dang. It’s a good thing he did or I’d be thinking “Morgan Freeman, Morgan Freeman” through the entire movie. Like when I watch Will Smith in a movie or Tom Cruise. I’m always thinking “Big Will” except when he played Hancock. Or, Tom Cruise when he played Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible. Other than that, in all Cruise’s other films I think the characters name is Tom Cruise.

I do wonder if anyone was ever thinking of Morgan Freeman ever playing Nelson Mendela way back in the day during this scene here. I'm so bad.

Let me get back on track. I loved the energy of Invictus. I don’t think I’ve ever said that before about a film – “The energy.” It amazes me that true stories, where we know the outcome, can still get you pumped and excited and filled with anticipation of what will happen next.

I hope Hollywood will continue to put out inspiring movies such as this.

My Rating ~ 4 Reels

0-9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Z

Invictus

This is another film that had me feeling all mooshy -gooshy inside with its inspirational story.

Movie Details

Synopsis

Review

My Rating ~ 4 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)