Typical in your face movie

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2011)

The movie looks very impressive but only to foreign people, who are clueless about South Africa's political history. The same could be said of its director, Clint Eastwood, who seems to have just read a book about Mandela & his commitment to help South Africa win the World Cup Rugby and did a movie about it, without any profound knowledge about South Africa's political heritage.
Eastwood makes it look as if Mandela had it all his way after becoming the president of South Africa,and we South Africans know there's no truth to this. There's no F.W.De Klerk in this movie & some white Afrikaaners who still endeavoured to make things difficult for Mandela & the entire black race in a post apartheid South Africa, meaning those who thought that blacks were going to oppress whites in the same way that whites maltreated blacks. There's more humour in the movie & less the emotional trauma that engulfed the black race during this period.
Towards the movie's end, there's a white guy lifting up a black kid in rejoice after South Africa trounced New Zealand to win the World Cup. That to me was so unrealistic it was like a fantasy dream.
And what about the flaws in this movie, which IMDb movie reviewers declined to mention? Morgan Freeman struggling to pronounce Mandela's middle name, "Rholihlahla", when Mandela took oath for the first time as president of South Africa? That was a total disgrace because Mandela had always taken pride in pronouncing African names correctly. If Eastwood was smart, he would've hired someone to pronounce Mandela's middle name & pretended as if it was Freeman doing so.I hear from a reliable source that they did the same with Terrence Howard, who will also try his luck as Mandela in the upcoming movie, Winnie, alongside Jennifer Hudson, who will portray Winnie Mandela. Adjoah Andoh's accent was also very annoying & I can assure you there's no South African who speaks like that.
And Freeman keeping quiet in singing the national anthem during the final match between South Africa and New Zealand? Aah common! Mandela always sang our national anthem to the full to encourage other people to be patriotic about our country.
To encapsulate, I think it's for the better that South Africans portray their own political heroes because they know their political history better than anybody else. They also won't struggle to emulate the African accents of their political heroes since they are naturalised in them.
And the movie is very predictable, looks like a sports like Disney movie & doesn't leave any memories behind. If I had to give anyone credit in this movie, it would be Tony Kgoroge, who portrayed Mandela's bodyguard, Jason Tshabalala. Watch the movie & you could really see him trying his best to invoke those much needed emotions in the movie. And what did Matt Damon do to be nominated for an Oscar award in this movie? I give the movie 6/10 & it's even lucky to get that from me.
Seka Samuel Gaula Cape Town, South Africa