INVICTUS

US, 2009, 134 minutes, Colour.

Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Adjoa Andoh, Patrick Lyster, Penny Downie.

Directed by Clint Eastwood.

Invictus means 'unconquered'.  However, the film's title comes from a poem of 1975 by William Ernest Henley, a poem Nelson Mandela relied on during his 27 years internment on Robben Island, especially its final lines, 'master of my fate, captain of my soul'.  Mandela was certainly invictus in his surviving prison and invictus in his election as president

of South Africa.

This is a Clint Eastwood film.  Eastwood will be 80 in May.  During his 70s he has made a string of fine films, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling and Gran Torino, an extraordinary effort and one marked by themes of forgiveness, a seemingly far cry from his Dirty Harry days.  Eastwood is a master storyteller and, in his older age, has not shied away from significant themes.

As Invictus opens, Mandela is being released from prison in 1990.  Eastwood uses television-reporting style of filming not only to indicate the historic moment being recorded but to enable the audience to accept Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela for the rest of the film.  While he looks like Morgan jman and he sounds like Morgan Freeman and has Morgan Freeman's gravitas, we readily accept that it is Nelson Mandela, the historical person, that we are watching.

In retrospect, as journalist John Carlin does in his book, Playing the Enemy, on which the film is based, it seems a master stroke of politics and humanity (as Mandela notes several times) to bring black and white people together supporting the national rugby union team when South Africa is hosting the rugby world cup in 1995.  The sequences where the meeting of football supporters vote to eliminate the colours and the name of the Springboks and Mandela himself comes to tell them not to because it is depriving the Afrikaaners of something they value (which they had done to the blacks) but to use that for uniting people indicates his shrewdness and vision.  The sequence where he persuades his black security officer to accept former white police, from Special Branch, into the bodyguard squad is similarly powerful.

The portrait of Mandela is glowing though the rift with his wife and family, his indefatigably driven work ethic, are indicated.

Matt Damon plays Francois Pinaar, the captain of the Springboks, who, with example in leadership and the encouragement of the president, urges his team on to a surprising victory.  Again, the suggestion of Mandela that the team go to the townships and coach the black youth despite the wariness and ignorance of the conditions on the part of some of the team, works wonders and, on television, is a coup for public relations.

The final match against New Zealand's All Blacks is presented in all its rough and tumble ('soccer is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans and Rugby is a hooligans game played by gentlemen') though whether it would convert any American audience to the code is probably a 'no'.

With Mandela and with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1990s South Africa, despite economic and social difficulties, despite the high crime rate, showed the world that hatred and revenge were understandable but futile – that is the spirit of Invictus.  The poem reveals the experience of Mandela on Robben Island.

                                                              Invictus

  Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

  I thanks whatever gods may be

  For my unconquerable soul.

 In the fell clutch of circumstances

I have not winced or 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.

• The title? Unconquered? The Henley poem of 1875, I Am the Master of My Fate, the Captain of My Soul? 
• The status of Nelson Mandela, as a person, as a politician, as a humanitarian?
• South African history, the decades of apartheid, the attitudes of racism, the oppression by the Afrikaners, the reaction of black Africans? The end of apartheid? The transition to the Republic of South Africa under democratic rule? 
• Clint Eastwood as a storyteller, his age when making this film, a humanitarian?
• The visuals of South Africa, Capetown, Johannesburg, the townships? In the 1990s? Pretoria and government?  The look of the townships and the roads?  The children playing?  The visuals of Capetown, the city itself, the stadium, the surrounding mountains?  The trip to Robben Island? 
• The musical score, the anthems, the songs and the spirit?
• The 1995 World Rugby Cup, for the rugby nations, for the world, for South Africa?
• The introduction to Mandela, his release from prison, as a person, his dignity, the interviews? The people’s reaction? The use of the news footage style, audiences being able to believe  that Morgan Freeman was Mandela?
• Mandela as president, democratically elected? The range of reactions? Black and white?  The motorcade, the two groups playing football, the white school and the fence, the black boys?  The different responses?  The whites and their condemnation, their fears?  The Pienaar family, the father’s reaction to Mandela? 
• Mandela as president, in his home, the early morning walk, the guards, the fears of assassination, the paper deliveries and the truck? Going to the office, seeing people packing, the staff and their fears, Brenda and her command of the staff, adviser to him? Assembling the staff, his speech, welcoming them to stay if they wished?  The head of security, the document indicating that former white police would be part of the bodyguard?  His appeal?  Mandela’s explanation?  For unity, for the needs of the Afrikaners to accept him?  The difficulties of the Afrikaners controlling the police, the economy, the money? 
• Mandela as indefatigable? The international tours and his speeches? The theme of forgiveness and his continued preaching of it, to Jason and the security guards?  The importance of this in relationship to his wife, family?
• The scenes at home, the servants, at the office, his work?
• The theme of football, the introduction to Francois’ family, the Springboks playing, playing badly, the TV commentator and his devastating criticisms? The black African meeting, wanting to abolish the name Springbok, to substitute Proteas? Changing the colours and the football jerseys?  Communicating the decision of the meeting to Mandela, the vote at the meeting, Brenda warning him in the car about sensibilities?  His making the speech, making the decision?  The background of the black Africans supporting England or any opposition to the Springboks?  His own experience of stances at Robben Island?  The scene of the Springboks playing England, the black support for England? 
• The World Cup, the idea of South Africa’s victory because of their being hosts? The possibility for unification of the people? The role of sport?  National sentiment?
• The invitation to Francois to come to meet him, the family’s reaction? Francois and his nervousness, the discussions with Mandela, the discussion about example, inspiration, the introduction of the poem Invictus, the Springboks and their singing and morale?
• The training sequences, hard training, making sure the team was fit? The decision that they should go and coach children in the townships, the bus ride, the fears, the shock of some of the men at seeing the townships and the way of life, the boys playing football, the training, the bonds between the team and the kids, Chester as the black representative? The hero?  The background of the boy going to the charity and refusing to wear the Springbok jersey?  Mandela at work, the television showing the team and the coaching, everybody watching, Mandela valuing the image more than anything?
• Mandela’s physical collapse, working while watching television, Brenda and the staff trying to control him?
• The plan for the World Cup, his getting information, studying it?
• Audience response to Rugby Union, a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen, contrasting with soccer as a gentlemen’s game played by hooligans? The importance for security at all of the matches? The explanations? 
• The security guard personnel, Jason and his command, his resentment at the police being introduced? Mandela instructing him? His following orders?  The growing bonds between the whites and the blacks, soccer and Rugby Union, the explanations?  The security guard asking about Mandela’s family?  Mandela’s daughter and her hostility, the bangle, the memories of her mother?  Later and their supporting him at the time of the World Cup? 
• Mandela at ease with everyone, with officials, with the cheering crowds? Popular at all times?
• The World Cup, the variety of matches, Francois as leader? His character, his place in the family, with the black maid and getting her the ticket, with his girlfriend? His discussions with Mandela, Mandela meeting the team, learning their names, shaking their hands?  His own personality with the team, the drinking of the beer as the last toast to defeat?  His encouragement on the field? 
• The grand final, the tickets, Francois’ family, the security, the South African Airways plane flying over, the nervousness, the pilot taking responsibility? Mandela and his going on the field, the names of the players? The anthem?  The range of different people watching, at home, at bars, the television? 
• The detail of the game, tough, the scores, the All Blacks? The New Zealand prime minister? The reactions, the boy outside and his getting closer to the security guards to listen?  The All Blacks and Jonah Lumu?  Being targeted?
• Success, the two men on the dais, the World Cup? A united South Africa?
• The actual possibilities for unification, the difficult circumstances, the background of truth and reconciliation, the exercise of leadership? The final photos during the credits of the actual characters?