Invictus (2009)

Although it was overly long (2:12 should have been cut to 1:50 or so) Jon, Jack, and I enjoyed and were inspired by Morgan Freeman's Nelson Mandela in director Clint Eastwood's newest saga connecting the South African rugby team's World Cup competition to the end of apartheid. Invictus is starting to rack up nominations and awards in this year's races. Freeman (Oscar winner for Million Dollar Baby (2004), good in everything, notably Driving Miss Daisy (1989), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en (1995), Nurse Betty (2000), Bruce Almighty (2003), Batman Begins (2005), The Bucket List (2007), and The Dark Knight) had apparently wanted to do a Mandela project for some time before journalist/author John Carlin told Freeman about his book, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation, and then Freeman brought Eastwood, his Oscar winning director/co-star of Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby, on board. See this link for more. Eastwood has become one of the grand old men of American cinema and has his own pile of accomplishments (Oscars for Unforgiven, Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby, and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006); the wonderful Charlie Parker bio-pic Bird (1988), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), the Iwo Jima companion piece Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Changeling, and Gran Torino, to name a few). Matt Damon (I covered him in The Informant!) was fine. His character was a simple man, an athlete and team captain whose world view did change over the course of the movie, but that meant he moved from acting respectful to President Mandela to actually agreeing with him, and didn't really seem any different (here's a story about Damon meeting the character he portrays). The one who changed the most was Mandela's head of security, well played by Jason Tshabalala, and the rest of the newly-integrated team.

The music and photography were superb, as to be expected from the filmmakers and locations. I especially liked two aerial shots of gigantic airplanes, probably computer generated. I just wish the movie had been shorter. I suspect only rugby fans will love the last 15 minutes. Apparently I picked such a good time for my bathroom break that Jon thought I had checked a certain website. This was news to me, and now, fellow movie lovers, I have found it. It's called RunPee.com (I can't even type it without giggling), soon to offer mobile phone apps that will vibrate when you should run (or print the times before you leave!). Invictus is the first movie listed, and five break times are suggested. However, I don't agree with the 56 minute break, and my break wasn't there. And I make no promises of watching the clock to give you better break times.

One reviewer said that Eastwood wanted so much for this film to be taken seriously that he gave it a Latin name. Jon said he got a little tired of Eastwood telling us when to be inspired. "Next thing you know," he said, "Clint Eastwood will be making a Robert De Niro Christmas movie," a dig at Everybody's Fine, which he was shocked we didn't hate. But, Jon insists, he liked Invictus. And we did, too (as have the majority of critics--Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 78%). As I said, it was inspiring. Just right for a holiday movie with the family.