A One-Note Song or Short Story: Good Thoughts, Undeveloped Movie

Rating: 5/10 (19 May 2010)

Clint Eastwood seems absent from this little movie until the credits at the end. What could have been a powerful little drama ends up being a volley between a hero president of South Africa and a Rugby Field. Granted we know a lot about the extraordinary Nelson Mandela and his surviving imprisonment to be released and form a government that through his inspiration brought an end to Apartheid. This little story about how he focused on encouraging a Rugby team's determination and success in winning the 1995 World Cup for Rugby and for bringing together a splintered country into a unified whole is well worth knowing, but little else happens here - we discover no insights into Nelson Mandela's character or that of his chosen inspirer François Pienaar. Clint Eastwood is usually far more sensitive and dramatic.
The name of the movie is taken from the 1875 poem that inspired Mandela during his years of imprisonment. And it seems appropriate to quote that full poem here: Invictus Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
Henley may not have become a poet known for anything else but this poem, but he will always be quoted when it comes to stories such as this one. The superb actor Morgan Freeman endures denture and facial make up and a shaky new accent as Nelson Mandela, but this is a flat performance - OK, but not memorable. Matt Damon obviously buffed up for his role and learned a new accent as François Pienaar and seems to know his mission, but again the performance is flat line and not impressive. The entire cast is adequate for the little they contribute. Yes, we want to love this movie and the ending does make us swell with admiration, but it is the getting there that seems an overwrought and excessive 93 minutes! Worth seeing if only to applaud once again the achievements of Nelson Mandela.
Grady Harp