My 295th Review: World In Union

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2009)

As someone bought up on rugby and a strong anti-apartheid supporter - and those two things could go together - I was always going to love this.
With Eastwood at the helm we get a wonderful performance from Morgan Freeman, who really dominates this film, and a very solid performance from Matt Damon, who obviously took his rugby training very seriously.
This is a film whose central theme is inspirational leadership - Mandela had that wonderful ability to inspire people with his humility and drive - and this is bought out wonderfully.
This is a great film to simply enjoy - it is at its heart a film about inspiring a people through both sport and healing a nation - and Eastwood captures that.
This film deserves to be a real success in those countries where rugby is still a major sport, but deserves a much wider audience - it's a great film for anyone who enjoys an inspirational sports movie and good politics and is a glimpse of the best that humans can achieve when inspired to do so...