Deserves a second glance

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2010)

Two-time Oscar Best Director winner Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven) adapts for the screen John Carlin's book "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation" with "Invictus".
In another Oscar nominated role as Nelson Mandela, Oscar Best Supporting Actor winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) portrays the South African President who, in his first term, starts a curious campaign to unify the country torn apart by racism by supporting the mostly white national rugby team to win the 1995 World Cup. Oscar Best Screenplay winner Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) is also nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for his role as rugby team captain Francois Pienaar, who becomes Mandela's unlikely partner.
Eastwood tells this story like he's told his other movie gems: deliberately, bordering on overlong. He takes his time to explore each character and he often appeals to great emotion. Mandela is presented as 'a man, not a saint', touching painfully on his separation from his wife and estrangement from his daughter.
It's difficult not to like an underdog plot for a film, especially as a Filipino moviegoer such as myself who immediately latches on to parallelisms with South Africa's poverty and need for a strong leader, how rugby has served as an inspiring metaphor for unity just like our own boxing champ Manny Pacquiao has decreased crime rates whenever a match of his is on.
"Invictus" isn't something the average escapist moviegoer will camp out to see; frankly, it sounds boring. After all, the title is of a poem most highschoolers have had to memorize and so may regard this as a 'required viewing' sort of flick. But whether or not you still remember the lines to the poem that aptly inspired Mandela's 'unconquerable soul', revisit it in context with a glimpse of the actual cell where Mandela stayed for almost 30 years and marvel how despite that experience, he is able to forgive his oppressors, something that is crucial to his goal of unity for his country. (If that still doesn't grab you, at least watch out for Eastwood's son Scott, who delivers the final kicks for the Springboks in their game against New Zealand.)