‘Invictus’ Tries Too Hard

In the new millenium Clint Eastwood has risen to significant acclaim as a filmmaker, becoming a regular nominee at the Academy Awards for his prowess as a director. This year rumors have already started circulating that his most recent movie Invictus will be up for the award of Best Picture.

With Invictus, a biopic about South African president Nelson Mandela, Eastwood strives to tell several heartwarming stories about the bond of South Africans created by the team’s 1995 bid for the Rugby World Cup.

Eastwood meanders around these subplots, never focusing on any of them long enough so that viewers can connect with the characters. The overarching theme concentrates on President Nelson Mandela and his effort to unite blacks and whites after years of ethnic hatred. The newly elected president seeks to establish goodwill amongst his people by keeping white staff members and employing white bodyguards. At first his black bodyguards protest, but at Mandela’s insistence the men work together, slowly developing a camaraderie.

Mandela sees the nation’s rugby team as symbol of compromise in race relations. White South Africans have traditionally rooted for the nation’s rugby team, while black South Africans have rooted against the team. He sees preserving the team under a new government as a good faith gesture towards the white minority that the black government is not out to destroy everything whites once cherished.

Mandela throws all of his political energy behind the team, taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with its captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon). He challenges Pienaar and the team to exceed their own expectations and to make legitimate bid for the Rugby World Cup. Devoting all of his free energy to the team leads him to physical exhaustion and alienation from some of his own staff members, two aspects of the story that are never fully fleshed out.

Eastwood also concentrates on Pienaar and his team, showing their training and community outreach, but you only feel like you see them on a superficial level. Another subsection of this plot includes Pienaar’s father, a man representing the old regime, doubtful of Mandela’s abilities as a leader. You never really see why his attitude starts to change, he just seems to suddenly go along with the changing tide without reason.

During various moments there’s focus on a poor South African child, who we first encounter when he refuses a free rugby jersey from a shelter, based on the principle of what it represents. He pops up again at later points in the film, however we do not learn any real details about him. You never learn his name or anything significant about him which is disappointing, because he might have been one of the more creative avenues for the narrative to follow.

If there is one word that’s best suited to describe this movie it would be “forced.” Many aspects of this story just feel like they are trying too hard. Damon and Freeman feel like they are each forcing to maintain their accents, which restricts them from more freely interpreting the characters. Admittedly Damon does a better job with the accent than Freeman lending credibility to his character. One thing Freeman does quite well as Mandela however, is capturing his matter-of-fact sense of humor, in such a way that encourages the audience to laugh.

The dialogue itself is overtly cheesy and cliché, making an obvious show of inspirational intent. Damon’s character makes utterly generic team captain speeches, while Freeman’s speaks in a hodgepodge of Mandela-isms, which sound planted by the writer.

Invictus feels forced as a sports film because it fails to establish the proper tension. Even though the actors are playing rugby, one of the toughest, meanest sports, as the audience it’s difficult to feel like you’re in the heat of the action, despite your close proximity to the scrum. You never feel like the team is actually in danger of failing in their quest to accomplish their goals, because their future is never adequately placed in danger. The games in the World Cup pass by with little sense of true fiery competition.

While acclaim for this film has been relatively high among critics, I don’t believe this is one of Clint Eastwood’s finer movies. It’s not horrible or unwatchable, it’s simply not his best. If you have high hopes for this story you’ll probably be disappointed like I was.

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