Invictus (Drama/True Story)

Invictus (meaning 'invincible' in Latin) is the name of a poem written by William Ernest Henley - an inspirational poem! 'One Team, One Country' was the Springboks motto during the 1995 World Cup - an inspirational slogan! 'Invictus' is a film about Nelson Mandela in his first term as President and tells the story of Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joining forces with the captain of South Africa's Rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) to mend his fractured nation during the 1995 Rugby World Cup - a not so inspirational movie!

Now it's fair to say that movies about sport generally don't hold my attention. I even had to ask my man just prior to walking into the cinema whether they played rugby union or rugby league in the Rugby World Cup. Needless to say he was visibly distressed that I had asked such a question. I told him that the most I knew about Rugby was what my mother had taught me when we were growing up : "Honey all you need to know is that it's a game played by gentleman with odd-shaped balls". So unfortunately for this film, we were starting off on the backfoot but I was hoping the fact that Clint Eastwood (who directed and produced this film) was going to be it's salvation. Whilst Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman did put in pretty stellar performances, I found 'Invictus' even harder to get in to than I was anticipating and not just because of the rugby focus but also because I kept thinking that I had missed several poignant lines due to the faux South African accents of both Mandela and Francois. And because there was very little struggle on the road to victory, everything seemed to come too easily for both men. And finally, because I was completely distracted by Matt Damon's hair and his terrible patchy highlights.

I thought it was a shame that the overriding reaction I had to this film was disappointment, particularly given that 'Invictus' is a film based on a great story. It is Nelson Mandela's first term as the democratically elected President following his release after 27 years in captivity. The 1995 tournament was the first Rugby World Cup that South Africa was allowed to play in following the end of their international sport boycott due to the apartheid regime. The torn apart country of South Africa was screaming out to be unified again. But regardless of all this premise, the film did not live up to the greatness of the story.

And along the way there were hints of themes that peaked my interest but mostly they went nowhere. For example, there was a scene during which Mandela first invited Francois for tea and he asks him whether his previously injured ankle was holding him back. Francois says no because "We generally only play at about 85%" and Mandela says something like - "ahh in sport as in life my friend". I thought this would've been a great theme to explore further particularly given Mandela's character, as it made me think about how we often play at 85% in life to avoid getting hurt, being dissapointed, failing etc. And if this was the case then how do we inspire people (team members, work colleagues, friends etc.) to "play" at 100%? And if we make the choice ourselves to play "life" at 100%, how do we keep the damage to a minimum?

Another engaging theme that I thought the movie teased us with was in relation to 'intentions'. The characters in this movie made me think alot about their intentions and whether it was always their intention to be 'great' (most likely in Mandela's case) or whether it was a collection of circumstances that accidentally made them great. For me, Francois seemed to be one of those people who found themselves surrounded by circumstances that made him great, but he did little in the film to inspire greatness from his team. This theme reminded me of a conversation I was having with a girlfriend the other night over a glass of vino and we were discussing 'the purpose of life' i.e. what should your intentions be regarding your own lifetime achievements? (Yep, leave it to us to tackle the big questions!) Specifically we were discussing whether it was an acceptable intention in life just to want to be a good person, a good friend, a good mother, a good daughter. Or should you aim to leave a lasting impression on the world and do good in a way that buys you a place in the history books? Whilst my girlfriend was leaning towards believing the latter (and she's probably closer to it than I!), it left me feeling that if that were the case, given we can't all go down in history, then are 98% of us destined to fail?

And so, even though this film was effective at portraying Mandela as one of those rare individuals who might have achieved both intentions - he was a good man, and a man who's name went down in the history books - 'Invictus' definitely lacked something for me. I really wanted to see more of Mandela's leadership style, to obtain some insight about the tactics and strategies he used to unify people, or the struggles he went through in taking over the Presidency. But all I got was Rugby - in fact the whole second half of the movie felt like a long drawn out Rugby match. So if you are a Mandela fan - or if you're not a Rugby fan - I'd give this film a miss. In fact I think I would've preferred to have gone to a real Rugby game. And that is saying something!

• Apparently Nelson Mandela himself said that only Morgan Freeman could portray him in a film
• As Francois Pienaar was known for his imposing physique, when Matt Damon turned up at his door for their first dinner (as Francois had agreed to assist Matt in preparing for the role) he has said that he broke the ice by joking "I look much bigger on camera"
• When filming the rugby games, there were only 2000 extras in the staduims, so the sell out crowd of 62,000 were mostly computer generated!