Clint Eastwood’s Invictus: A Colossal Bore
South Africa is plagued with astonishing levels of crime and poverty, its peoples segregated and suspicious of one another. But the new Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus says that’s all okay, because the country’s rugby team won a few games in 1995.
Coming off last winter’s excellent and far more challenging Gran Torino, Invictus is shockingly pedestrian and cliché-ridden. Its level of racial naivety makes it a sort of Driving Mr. Damon, with Morgan Freeman accepting a demotion from his usual roles as God or the president of the United States. This time he merely plays a saint — Nelson Mandela.
Although in one scene we are told that Mandela is a flesh-and-blood human being with family troubles, the rest of the movie shows the man working himself to exhaustion, protesting that he is overpaid, putting himself in physical peril for the sake of his country, forgiving sinners, and generally glowing from the halo over his head. As played by Morgan Freeman with maximum beatitude, he’s one of many reasons why this movie is a colossal bore.
Another is Matt Damon who, as the blond captain of the South African national rugby team the Springboks, is a total blank except that he really wants to win. His team plays so badly in the early stages of the movie that he orders everyone to drink the worst beer he can find — to symbolize the bitter taste of defeat. If putting together a championship-caliber team were that easy, wouldn’t the Detroit Lions simply order in a few cases of Pabst?
Despite Eastwood’s eagerness to portray Mandela as a sort of Jesus with a funny accent, the president seems to be less interested in his country’s nightmare problems than in spending vast amounts of time obsessing over the fortunes of the nearly all-white rugby team as South Africa prepares to host rugby’s World Cup.
And what is rugby? You got me. It is to football what cricket is to baseball, I suppose. There are teams of brawny men, there is a ball, and you’re not allowed to throw the ball forward. That’s all the movie has to say about the rules. Why do most of the players from each of the two rival teams all gather together with arms locked in a circle? It’s a mystery. In a movie that contains several scenes of Mandela poring over the World Cup rugby bracket, it’s a crazy omission.
I often wonder why some White People feel the need to bow down to Africans, and it isn’t because of the history of slavery either, since the Moslem Arabs enslaved far more African Blacks than the Western Whites ever dreamed of, and held them in far more degrading and disgusting conditions than an Alabama plantation owner would ever have thought of.
And all those who somehow still believe that the end of Apartheid was the dawning of freedom for South African Blacks almost certainly don’t live there and have never visited the place either.
Nelson Mandela and his former wife Winnie, were world class haters of Jews and Whites, and used murder and torture to enforce discipline among African National Congress followers as well as to aggrandize themselves.
Of course, much like Mao Tse Tung and Joseph Stalin, the sins of the Mandella’s may be overlooked and even excused, because they were Communists fighting against the West. It’s enough to make any decent person puke!
I’m originally South African and I have to say I was surprised, perplexed and disappointed that Eastwood, in his twilight years went ahead with this project.
One of our many problems in the world is this distraction into empty sporting pursuits like it means something. World Cups, Formula One, the Superbowl, the European Champions League, the Olympic Games blabla – all just mindless escapism.
As far as the South African Rugy world cup triumph goes back in ’95, I remember celebrating and getting a bit drunk at the time (I was living in London then with the huge expat SA community). Looking back, it was simply lame, I knew it was even then, but went ahead with the crowd mentality. The victory in the world cup distracted attention from South Africa’s problems for like a week, then life went back to normal: murder, rape, racism, beggary, massive government corruption, urban ghetto sprawl, continued institutional exploitation by big business, pollution etc. Since that victory that means nothing, the number of South Africans living on less than a dollar a day has doubled, the number of murdered has been in excess of 25 000 persons per year, the last decade. SA has the highest number of rapes per capita in the world with the possible exception of the Congo. The number of people who have emigrated from SA since ’95 is roughly one million (the majority of these have been white people who can afford to emigrate). That may not sound like too many but there are only five million whites in SA.
Then there is the nightmare of xenophobic pogroms against non-South African Africans from Zimbabwe, Congo and Nigeria that have plagued Cape Town and Johannesburg, motivated largely by competition for too few low-paying jobs. Then there is the ANC foreign policy of sucking up to despotic regimes mainly of the Islamist variety, but not limited to them and then there has been the squandering of hundreds of millions of dollars on fighter jets and warships SA does not need.
Next year SA is hosting the soccer world cup. They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on stadiums and the rest while the mass of people go hungry. So it’s not like SA has learned its lesson about the pointlessness of sports circuses. Thankfully the SA soccer team is so bad, it is destined to become the first team hosting a world cup finals to go out in the first round. I say thankfully because then the whole country can calm down somewhat during the knockout stages.
Eastwood disappoints, maybe in his old age, he is getting soft and sentimental. Maybe he has spent too much time in the bubble of Hollywood.
Ken your comments are simply bizarre, and I’m no fan of Nelson Mandela, a sacred cow if ever there was one. Winnie Mandela is simply odious, a tyrant. The ANC are viciously anti-Semitic yet your comments on Nelson Mandela are way over the top and unwarranted.
As a man who played rugby for > 22 years I am jacked to see this movie. I still have the 1995 final on tape – it is the older style brutal trench warfare the ‘Boks were known for but a fabulous game nonetheless.
In regards to the movie I recommend reading “Playing the Enemy” to get a truer understanding of the importance of Mandella supporting the Springboks – if he would have kneejerk disbanded the ‘Boks the civil war would have been truly frightening in the RSA.
None of this excuses taking help from communists though…
Clint’s films get more liberal every year. It’s hard to believe he was called a fascist etc for his Dirty Harry films. Clint shifted leftward along with Hollyweird. Last Clint Eastwood movie I saw was years ago – “Line of Fire” 1993
Gran Torino was hailed. Even that was feel-good absurd going by the 10 minutes I saw
Is it racist to name this movie after a poem written by a white Englishman?
why was Nelson Mandela in prison ?
I always say bravo for Clint Eastwood. A great success story and one of the few directors who still believes that entertaining his audience is an important part of his job. Having said that I think that we are all aware that one element of Clint’s success has been his ability to push all the of the right idealogical buttons involving Hollywood’s pet themes. With “Million Dollar Baby” we have a feisty proto-feminist fantasy featuring Clint himself as a tortured lapsed Catholic indulging in a mercy-killing. (Also Morgan Freeman – Wise and commanding – Again!) In “True Crimes” he is an aging-but-honest reporter who discovers that the nice young African-American on death row didn’t do it and saves his life. In “Absolute Power” he is the veteran professional theif who stumbles on murder and corruption in the White House. In “Bridges of Madison County” he gives us the “Gotterdammerung” of chick flicks. And now with “Invictus” we have the Morgan Freeman as a simply wonderful human being (Again!) and a heal-the-racial-wounds sports story. However Clint’s saving grace is that he always does this stuff with style and brio and can make even hackneyed plot devices seem fresh and original. Any “Mystic River” is one of the best crime films ever made.
I asked all my friends why Mandela was arrested and in jail. They didn’t know. They all though he was a hero but not one knew he was a terrorist. This movie will just bolster the false hero image in the ignorant masses.
I’m also sick of seeing Americans in fake voices play non-Americans. There are plenty of native actors who could be just as if not more convincing.
Well, #2 I will hope Mexico and France (accounting for all 8/8ths of my ancestry) do their part, seeing as they are in the same bracket as SA. I do think a possible outcome is that a more believably capable African team such as Ivory Coast gets the path greased for them (calls in favor, no red cards etc) to be in the Finals.
Back on topic, I think Mandella’s faults and associations were overlooked because of the sheer racism of the Afrikaaner-dervied regime, not because he was a pet of socialism and the left. Few across the spectrum in the 80s questioned ending apartheid, although maybe those smart skeptical people like Dick Cheney should have cultivated a right-thinking Mandela figure as an alternative. Mandela wasn’t advocating Afro-separatism against VDH’s halcyon California or go-go Britain.
I can NOT think of too many things more boring and/or wrong than Nelson Mandela or Matt Damon. This is leftist political narcissism or a catastrophic nature. I swear this current apocryphal world political/religious/spiritual situation was all presciently foreseen in the Scary and Brilliant new Thriller book BLACK ROAD 2012, which has something in it to offend or rally everybody. I mean it—it’s almost really a Nostradamus paranormal event! http://tinyurl.com/Paranormal-Detective-Thriller
Although in one scene we are told that Mandela is a flesh-and-blood human being with family troubles, the rest of the movie shows the man working himself to exhaustion, protesting that he is overpaid, putting himself in physical peril for the sake of his country, forgiving sinners, and generally glowing from the halo over his head. As played by Morgan Freeman with maximum beatitude, he’s one of many reasons why this movie is a colossal bore.
Yeah, the guy only spent the majority of his life to free black people from literal slavery. What an a-hole.
for the persons who believe that Rugby is a sport for girls :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWZaWundoQg
it’s brutal as so the american football is, but without armor, and the wounds are very painful
About Mandela, how could a black African leader possibly be ? he can’t forget his black compatriots. I recall that he is from black african nobleness, and had for so to keep in mind his origins and absorb the white culture.
Now, about his relations with Israel, no wonder he had some eagerness toward the country that helped the white apartheid regime to oppress his population, in providing it arms (among them, biological’s) and knowledge.
Now, I have not more sympathy for Mandela’s regime than for any other country, these are the aletaory policies
Football is a game for beast played by beast.
Soccer is a game for gentlemen played by beast.
Rugby is a game for beast played by gentlemen.
As I played soccer in Germany, football in high school and rugby in college, I think this adage is a fair statement. Since I think rugby is the supiorer game, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the film more than one who doesn’t know the game. (Interestingly, our best Rugby club was coached by a gentleman from South Africa.)
I admit I agree with Kate. Frankly, I had to smile when I saw the poem printed out, to make sure the uninitiated didn’t get it. Really, kind of funny, but the minute I heard the title, I knew that the cliches would be often and many. Very overdone to the point of silliness.
Eastwood keeps “growing.” Apparently nothing satisfies as much as the approval of the anointed.
Actually, I remember the 1995 rugby world cup in South Africa. I’m not a rugby fan myself (I always say, chasing a ball is the kind of thing that amuses my dog, but even he wouldn’t waste his time watching other people doing it). However, you need to understand the mood of the time.
White South Africans had just voluntarily relinquished power in their own country. People hoped that the terrorist campaign of the past could be buried and a new start made. There was a lot of hope and change in the air. Most people wanted to make a success of the new multiracial SA.
A (non-white) colleague told me, years later, that the world cup gave him hope that it could succeed. For a few weeks, it actually seemed that South Africans of all races were united behind the national team. (Rugby in SA is not just a sport, it’s a religion). So, yes, as ridiculous as the premise of this film seems to you, for some people at the time, desperate for some omen of national unity, it seemed reasonable.
Of course, it was all an illusion. The predictions of the racist apartheid hold-outs all came true. As the last European-colonial country in Africa to hand over to African rule, why should anyone have thought that, this time, it would be different?
While I have not seen this movie yet (and I probably will) I must strongly disagree with earlier poster who wrote off “Gran Torino” in spite of admitting to having watched 10 minutes of it. That movie had an unexpected ending, you should watch the whole thing. The message of the movie was entirely positive, in my humble opinion, and very consistent with conservative values.
Give it another viewing, watch it until the end.
And from the point of view of the black South Africans in the movie, the team is probably racist (it has only one black player).
The fact is that unless you are advocating for that form of racism called positive discrimination there was no other black player, specially for the forward positions (the eight big guys who take part in the scrums) even remotely good enough to play in the National team. Quite simply the blacks played soccer not rugby For several reasons one of them is that unlike soccer you can’t play rugby just anywhere, you need a very large surface covered with lawn and there were few of them in the ghettos. And rugby resuires some special morphologies (just try to buid a competitive team from Chinese). Another one is that South African rugby has ever been about Afrikaners having a chance at smashing some British South African faces and settling some scores dating back to teh Boer war.
never giving up) the national sports council, which is all or mostly black, has to be dissuaded by Mandela from disbanding the Springboks and throwing away its green and gold emblems as symbols of apartheid. Mandela tells them to forgive. Mighty nice of him, but you can’t make people love a sports team.
That was precisely the plan. Soccer is the black sport but South Africa was/is a third rate team who had/has about one chance in a million of winning the World Championship. If you want to use sports to instil some national pride in people so they think themselves as South Africans instead of Xhosas, Zulus, Afrikaners and British South Africans you better use a sport where for a century you have ever been between the 3 best and have fair chances to become world champion.
The point is that through sport, everyone (or at least everyone in South Africa) can put differences aside and join together as one. The idea is laughable; South Africa, many years after the end of apartheid, remains a seething, dangerous place. The result of a rugby tournament meant nothing.
Sorry to disappoint you but South African victory was celebrated by both Blacks and Whites. It couldn’t solve South Africa’s probelms by itself just be a small step in the right direction.
Now what if you gave us a critic of the so we know if it is worth watching. If we wanted to kow about South-African socio-economics and politics we would go to the writings of peole who have done their homework.
Now there is a little problem with basng a movie on South Africa’s 1995 victory. The New Zealand team suffered food poisonning two days before the game and there were suspicions foul play was involved. True or false it casts a shade on South Africa’s victory. Since the game went to extra time and that it was amere drop goal in second half of the extra time who gave victory to South Africa it is highly probable that had its players been at 100% Bew Zealand would have won hands down.
I don’t think one should dismiss this movie just because it’s about rugby!
There have been PLENTY of movies about football (The Blindside, anyone?) where far fewer people around the world understand the game (even here for that matter!) and yet have a good story behind them.
I think Clint found this story inspiring, and found the subplot with Mandela even more intriguing, and given a chance to make an important “statement” movie…went for it!
Whether he succeeded or failed depends on your point of view. Obviously, the effort wasn’t one of his best movies…but sometimes the ol’ liberal in him just can’t help himself when given the chance to make “history”.
My advice, Clint…stick to westerns and crotchety ol’ men stuck in a world they have trouble understanding…
18. Richard A.:
While I have not seen this movie yet (and I probably will) I must strongly disagree with earlier poster who wrote off “Gran Torino” in spite of admitting to having watched 10 minutes of it. That movie had an unexpected ending, you should watch the whole thing. The message of the movie was entirely positive, in my humble opinion, and very consistent with conservative values.
Give it another viewing, watch it until the end.
I agree with some of your take on Gran Torino …but it’s conservative values are too veiled and can be taken a number of ways. (not all conservative)It is like Clint wants to leave the door open to interpretation.
I will not be watching this one. the actors are tooooooooo far left to leave anything to interpretation this time around.
regards
JFM – surprise, surprise. A New Zealand whinger. Your team was beaten, take it like a man. Every time you loose you have someone eles to blame…..and the only time your team won the RWC was when South Africa was barred from playing.
JFM are you a rugby “amateur” ?
you gave the right reason why blacks are rare in SA team, they are also rare in our clubs too (as so the maghrebin), because Rugby used to be a sport practiced by persons who have a certain social position, like dentist and or any liberal profession. This sport was only sponsored by locals, because rugby wasn’t a mobs sport. The players wages weren’t enough attractive for a poor boy that could earn a lot more in practicing soccer.
It’s only since TV reports are more numerous that that clubs get more private sponsors, and more amateurs.
The Emphaw-sis on whites enslaving others, is an often overstated. You can say it puts a bad cast(e) on historical truths. (haha lame pun intended). Making TOOOO many apologies will let the other culpirits go unnoticed/unstung (full of bad puns today)
The turks were raiding the coast of virginia(!) back in the late 1600s in the hopes of acquiring blonde women as slaves; they were also raiding the coasts of western England or cornwall (they think they are a separate nation) for the same purpose. (At that time, no turk had heard of Golf. The scots hadnt either).
Nearly forgot it, in fact South Africa shouldn’t have reached the final since they would have lost against France hadn’t the referee refused to see a perfectly valid French try.
Study your history.
The Roman Empire survived as long as it did because of bread and circuses to keep the lower classes happy and occupied. They also had the world’s best Army and a powerful Navy.
Modern America produces way more bread then our 350 million or so inhabitants can eat. With a powerful army and the Best Navy this planet has ever seen, all we need is the modern version of a circus, which is broadly called entertainment.
Here in the 21st century entertainment is mostly a computer game, although Hollywood also as a declining role to play.
I am pretty sure that not all Roman circuses were smash hits. Just like Hollywood, they don’t have to be. Even a complete disaster of a movie has it’s entertainment value. It might not make any money, but the “actors” got theirs up front, the film crew were paid weekly during production. Clint will most likely be able to afford a Cheesburger somewhere, no matter what.
On a more positive note, in a hundred years or so some “genius” will start a show called Mystery Theater 5,000 where a bunch of Aliens ( think Star wars, not Mexico) will watch tired old movies like this and make smart alec remarks while selling deodorant.
Re-cycling at it’s finest.
Now it is left only to read the media reviews, and see how much that “white guilt” drives them insane and makes them rave about the greatness of this boring and oversimplified story…
all I know is, if this had been a great story of racial bonding and overcoming past grievances and so forth and so on, WE WOULD HAVE HEARD MORE ABOUT THIS IN THE SPORTS WORLD WHEN IT HAPPENED.
Even though it’s rugby.
Because the American media CANNOT RESIST a story like this, if it is anything close to true.
So it isn’t. Else we’d have heard of this before now.
JFM, the most beautiful match I saw was last month “old blacks vs France”
it was mere aesthetic
of course the “old blacks” won, they are invincible sind the beginning of the season, but we beat them last june, we also beat Australia a few times, though generally these teams are superior than our continental teams. In the club of the 6 nations of the continent we often win.
Well rugby might not mean much to the ignorant author of this article, a certain Mr. Boot, but it sure means a lot to plenty people all around the world – which is kind of the point of the movie. Mr. Boot needs to get out more.
Clint admittedly is taking a lot of risks with his movie making in his final years. “Letters from Iwo Jima” was not exactly a safe film to make. I am a big fan, and I confess to know the man personally, so I have a bias.
This sounds like a movie that was made for the Oscars, not an audience. Even the previews are a crashing bore, but they are the Oscar-nomination kind of crashing bore. “So-and-so is sheer perfection, the breathtaking something-or-other will stun you senseless; it’s a triumph of the blahblahblah.” No mention of the plot… now I see why.
Nice you have such good tastes Marie Claude. But teh name of the New Zealnd team is the All Blacks. Also when my daughter was a baby I used the Haka as lullaby. Nothing like “Kamate, kamate, ka ora” to make a baby sleep.
JFM
I prefer rugby to soccer, it’s more fun to watch
somethin that will rejoice your heart :
65 ans de la bataille des Ardennes à Bastogne. http://bit.ly/7ufftX
the anniversary of the battle of the Ardennes feste in Bastogne
Yes, I agree. This movie would be boring.
Next time make a real movie about real men playing a real game about making real money, earning a million or two per game with half naked women jusmping around in pom.s pom.s while everyone cheers .. and cheers and cheers. Now that is relevant.
And it is a movie we could all at least understand.
Great article, Thanks $$
“If putting together a championship-caliber team were that easy, wouldn’t the Detroit Lions simply order in a few cases of Pabst?”
..easy there, champ. Pabst Blue Ribbon isn’t (or at least wasn’t) so bad. After all 100-200 Hell’s Angels can’t be wrong..
..can they?
I think this John Boot should go watch the actual 1995 Rugby World Cup Final before he writes anything else on Invictus! Or maybe he should learn what the game is about first.
How can you talk so badly about a game if you don’t even know the game. Get your facts straight Mr Boot!!
I am a white South African and I was only 13 when we won the 1995 world cup. It was one of the greatest days of my life. I will never forget what I was wearing, what I was doing or how I felt when I saw Nelson Mandela walk out with that springbok jersey. It meant the world to us! and us meaning everyone!!! It showed us that he was behind the boks. He used the Rugby World Cup to unite people. Maybe it isn’t up to your standards but just imagine what this country would have been like if Mandela did not do what he did? Have you got any idea what a risk it was for Mr Mandela to walk out on the field with a springbok jersey?
Off course you still get racism in South Africa – but don’t U still get it in the US?
Wake up Mr Boot!!! You got much to learn!
Mariska, you go girl !
Excellent piece! And let’s not forget that Mandela was a convicted terrorist who was listed as such by the US State Department.
—STILL MORE safe, by-the-book, routine PC project work
from the LONG rich ‘daring maverick’ –one note ‘earnest’
Clint Eastwood.
MEANWHILE, having made BILLIONS upon BILLIONS outsourcing
cheap labor, and unflinchingly catering to the denial needs
of history’s –MOST– awesomely genocidal regime -bar none!
—ACROSS the Pacific —suck-up Hollywood and out ENTIRE
media establishment, Korea era draftee Eastwood included,
once again ‘mysteriously overlook’ the stggeringly relevant
60th Anniversary of the KOREAN WAR
-EVEN AS!-
people continue to suffer and die imprisoned and ignored
by—-the—-MILLION!
——————————-COOOOOOOL!