Egg chasing

Invictus (2009)

Based on the the story of the 1995 rugby world cup and the changing landscape of South Africa after the end of apartheid this film is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela with Matt Damon as the South African rugby captain. As this is nominally a sports movie you can probably guess what is going to happen, generally people do not care about second place teams.

What this film does well is stay clear of many of the pitfalls sports films usually fall into such as focusing too much on the players and team itself as well as going over the same old clichés. The real thrust of Invictus is the affect sports can have on communities or nations in this instance and is as much about Mandela's attempts to reconcile a population facing radical social change and many serious problems, a lot of which still exist in South Africa today.

Like usual this is a well made effort from Eastwood with good performances from the cast although the choice of some music included is a little heavy handed and the film is a little simplistic. Despite the slight flaws and limits of the genre Invictus manages to rise above being just another sports film and gives a good insight into Mandela and his policy of forgiveness and reconciliation.

4/5