Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 134 minutes
Release Date: December 11th, 2009 (USA)
Studio: Warner Bros.
Director(s): Clint Eastwood
Writer(s): Anthony Peckham / John Carlin (book Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation)

The Rainbow Nation starts here.

Now here is a sports film I can get behind. I’ll say that a little trepidation set in when going to see Clint Eastwood’s new film Invictus as it was a hybrid of my two least favorite genres: the biopic and the sports uplifter. The biography aspect actually had me intrigued because I sadly knew very little about Nelson Mandela and his ascension from jailed terrorist to nation’s president, but I never thought I’d be receiving my education with a rugby field as backdrop.

Even as I watched the trailers in the weeks leading up to the screening, I kept thinking it was about soccer. It is the World Cup. But rugby is definitely not soccer. There’s no grabbing your knees and writhing in pain before getting up the next play and scoring a goal. No, these men are bloody, broken, and full of heart as they scrum for the ball and play for their country. Yes, it’s an underdog tale, both for Mandela and the Springbok team alike, but it’s also a display of how anything can resonate on a political and human scale by giving enemies common ground to unite.

It’s sad but also relevant to think about the Spike Lee controversy surrounding Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and the subject of this film. I’m sure Clint has been eying this tale for a while now, but it’s interesting to think only a few years ago he had been wrongly lambasted by Lee for not having any African American characters in his WWII film. It was on the cusp of Lee’s own work, Miracle at St. Anna, which used that same setting, so it isn’t hard to think the quarrel was to gain a little early press while filming. But now Clint is telling the tale of a black man in South Africa rising to enormous heights in the aftermath of Apartheid.

It’s a story about the strength of will and character to bring a country together when all seemed lost. While his people had been shown no remorse or compassion, he’s finally put into power to turn the tables and get revenge. Instead, however, he sees the opportunity that was given and understands that forgiveness is the road to take. If the former Afrikaners had anything they held dear, it was Springbok rugby. So, while the black majority was ready to dismantle that heritage, Mandela saw a way to win the whites’ hearts. By getting behind something they loved while also getting the black population that despised them to join the wave, he was able to build the Rainbow Nation he envisioned.

It really is hard to imagine how rugby could so invigorate a people to put petty issues aside and become one. That pub mentality of being amongst friends while cheering on your home colors with pride really does rise above differences in the moment. Maybe it’s a fleeting truce, but sometimes it may be the thing necessary to open one’s eyes to what really matters. At the end of the day, no matter their color or language, the person next to you is a fellow human soul who has the same pride and emotion for their heritage and home as you.

One of the greatest strengths with Invictus is how it shows the evolution of both Blacks and whites, slowly breaking down the fear and anger that built a seemingly impenetrable wall between them. Characters learn the meaning of neighbors from start to finish and it all starts with Mandela going to his office on the first day of the presidency to let everyone know their jobs were secure as long as they did them to the best of their ability. Here was a man imprisoned for almost thirty years—finally free—granting the very people who put him there the compassion they never showed him. Whether he was a terrorist really depends on your own feelings and moral center, but none of that matters here. This story is about rebuilding and striving for a freedom that once seemed impossible.

I know the film is based on a book, so I can only assume the events transpiring are mostly true. In that case, the story is pretty amazing. Mandela was a workhorse doing all he could to honor his people: the men and women who put him into power to do so. He’s an intelligent man who knows the importance of that word power from the lack of humanity shown him in his cell. Watching how impassioned the citizens of his country get about a sport gave him a way in to level the playing field. It’s advantageous then that the 1995 World Cup was hosted by South Africa because maybe Mandela’s success needed that early international stage. But it’s not only fate. It’s what you do with it. Mandela and those boys on the field epitomize this viewpoint because they left it all out on the field to will a divided people into singing with one voice.

Clint Eastwood deserves a lot of credit for orchestrating this melding of political drama with sport. It’s definitely not a film I would have seen him wanting to attempt, but he does it with competence and success to mix everything together perfectly. There are a few missteps, including a cheesy song in Overtone’s “Colorblind” and the use of a little boy to instill false fear of an assassination attempt, but I applaud the overall effort.

The acting is where the true brilliance arrives. My standout is Tony Kgoroge as head of security Jason Tshabalala—a performance I hope spawns a nice career for him. Then there’s Morgan Freeman who—as my friend said afterwards—was “made for this role.” He has the mannerisms, speech, and look to become Mandela, body and soul. Matt Damon also provides his counterpart on the field, Francois Pienaar, a stirring portrayal. I almost wanted more bombast—for this captain to be more vocal and inspiring—but he admits he leads by example and does exactly that. The accent is smooth and the character is well fleshed out. Seeing him and his fellow teammates on the field is also pretty invigorating since we’re watching this mass of humanity locked in battle. The fight might have been waged on grass, but the victory was for the nation looking on to show how South Africa was a country shining bright and moving towards the future.

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McNEIL HENDRICKS (second from left) as Chester Williams, SCOTT EASTWOOD (third from left) as Joel Stransky and MATT DAMON (center) as Francois Pienaar in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Spyglass Entertainment’s drama “Invictus,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.