After spending 26 years as a political prisoner in South Africa, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) is released and is soon elected president of his country.  He initiates an inimitable venture to unite the apartheid-torn nation by enlisting the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 World Cup.

CRITIQUE

Invictus is a true story that should have been made as a documentary, because it does not really work as a dramatic motion picture.

Clint Eastwood is one of our finest directors, and he certainly does a fine job in recreating racially/ economically divided South Africa in the 1990s.  His staging of the various rugby matches is also superb, giving audiences a vivid sense of the brutality of the sport.

Morgan Freeman delivers an uncanny performance as Mandela, Matt Damon is fine as the captain of the South African rugby team and the rest of the cast deliver totally believable performances.

The problem with the movie is that not enough license was taken with the actual facts of the story to make it a compelling dramatic work. Perhaps this was the fault of screenwriter Anthony Peckham, who adapted John Carlin’s book, or maybe the filmmakers, in order to get cooperation from both the principals and the South African Government, were hampered with restrictions as to the kind of story they could tell.  I don’t really know.

What the picture lacks is any sort of true human conflict or emotion.

Where are the bigots and the white supremacists?  Undoubtedly they were there.  After all, South Africa had just elected Nelson Mandela, a black man and former “terrorist,” president, and everybody (black and white) in the movie is being so “polite” about it.

Early in the picture, there’s a scene in which Mandela is “booed” by a large segment of the crowd, yet we never see the faces of these protesters.  It would have been much more effective if we’d established a couple of these bigoted characters and followed them through the movie.

There are several scenes showing how Mandela’s security patrol is nervous about a possible assassination attempt, but there is no pay-off here.  [I’m certainly thankful that nobody tried to assassinate Mandela in real life, but having even a fictional thwarted assassination attempt would have given the picture some needed conflict.]

Although the movie just hints at aspects of Mandela’s personal life (he’s divorced and somewhat estranged from his daughter), it still remains potent for its first half while the president formulates his plan to utilize the rugby team as a way to help unite his country.

However, once that happens, the picture becomes totally repetitive, with Mandela cheering on, often visiting the team, and the team playing their various matches.

As previous stated, the rugby matches are well staged and often exciting.  But, if I wanted to see a rugby game, I would have watched a rugby game, not watched a dramatic motion picture.

Dramatic license is a part of good storytelling and there is nothing wrong in using it, providing you use it prudently and do not violate the basic facts and essence of the truth.  Sadly, the makers of this film forgot that.

THE VIDEO

The widescreen picture is sharp and has no problems.

THE AUDIO

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound is clear, however it is sometimes difficult to understand the dialogue because of the characters' accents.

THE EXTRAS

Matt Damon Plays Soccer (7 minutes) covers some of the training Damon underwent while preparing for his role.

You also get a trailer (2 minutes) that acts as combined ad for the movie and its soundtrack.

FINAL THOUGHT

Invictus is a well-made, dramatically lean film that would probably have worked better as a documentary.