It’s a sports movie. Now, if you like sports movies (I do), it’s a pretty good one, but just understand that even though it’s got Matt Damon in it, and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, it is a sports movie. The underdog always wins.
Like all the good sports movies, this one’s based on a true story. In 1990 when Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, he faced some pretty big challenges. I mean, although Apartheid had officially ended, the nation was still fractured with both sides eyeing the other warily, seeing who would jump first. The white minority still looked at the blacks as second-class citizens, and the blacks still viewed the whites as their oppressors. Not exactly an ideal situation for the country’s first black president to walk in to, y’know?
But Mandela is a pretty smart fella, and he knows that pretty much everyone in his country likes rugby. So if they have a team that they can ALL cheer for, it’ll help in breaking down some walls and fostering some healing. So he talks to the captain of the national rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Damon), and lets him know that he’s got to win the upcoming World Cup, which is a pretty tall order, since they kinda suck. But this is a sports movie, remember? This is how it works.
Now there’s no “training montage” which actually makes this film better, but as the story moves on, the team gets better and better, and although they qualify for the World Cup automatically since they’re the host country, they’re only a 2-1 underdog. There IS a “rising to the top montage”, which shows the South African team blasting the shite out of everyone else, all the way up to the New Zealand All Blacks, who (of course) are significantly and hopelessly better than them.
Now, I don’t wanna give anything away here, but again, this IS a sports movie – you can figure out what happens. The South African team wins, the nation is untied, rainbows and unicorns, etc., etc., etc.
I know I sound a little cynical here, but like I said – IT’S A SPORTS MOVIE.
If you like sports movies, and I really do, you’ll like Invictus. When it comes out on DVD you can put it on the shelf next to “Remember the Titans” and “Miracle”.
3.5/5
