Invictus
In 1964, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison on charges of sabotage against the apartheid government of South Africa. He served 27 years in prison, most of them on Robben Island doing hard labor. Mr. Mandela was released on February 11, 1990, by order from State President F. W. de Klerk. His involvement in the campaign of the African National Congress to end the apartheid system eventually led to its collapse, and in 1994 with sixty-two percent of the vote, Mr. Mandela won the presidential election.
The film begins on the day of his release. We see Mandela (Morgan Freeman) being escorted to his residence, and going through the motions of his daily preparation. Here is a man returning to normal life after nearly three decades in prison, but he still wakes in the pre-dawn hours to jog—evidence of the routine not escaping him. A van turning the corner alarms his security detail, turning out to be only the morning newspaper delivery. The newspaper headlines question his fitness to the task. “Not even one day on the job and they are after you,” scoffs his security chief, Jason Tshabalala (Tony Kgoroge). Replies Mandela, “It’s a legitimate question.”
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
Invictus, so named for a poem by William Ernest Henley that lifted Mandela’s spirits while imprisoned, is largely about Nelson Mandela’s struggle to bring the nation of South Africa together as one people. Some dramatic liberties may, naturally, have been taken. On his first day, much of his staff has packed in anticipation that the African National Congress intends to throw them out and replace them with, presumably, an all-black cabinet. Mandela insists on addressing his staff while his security detail waits outside, “I cannot talk to them freely behind men with guns.” So determined is he to have a unified South Africa, Mandela assures an integrated workplace. He hires white, SAS-trained agents in his security detail, a move which doesn’t sit well with Jason.
The story centers on the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks—a national embarrassment, and their turnaround. Their win against the New Zealand All Blacks in the 1995 Rugby World Cup was seen as a pivotal moment in reconciliation as it unified whites and blacks (who traditionally cheered England in protest of apartheid) in national pride. At the heart of the film’s take on this history is the relationship between Mandela and the Springboks’ team captain and flanker, Francois Pienaar. Mandela, called Madiba (his clan name), challenges the assertion that the Springboks’ name and colors should be changed. He recognizes what the Bokke represent to the whites; taking that away from them would mean losing their support.
His assistant, Brenda (Adjoa Andoh) argues, “You’re risking your political capital.” This is one example where the film veers into silliness. The phrase was most often used in reference to George W. Bush’s presidency; one can conclude its allegorical purpose here. The film’s dialogue seems comprised entirely of banal aphorisms. Every sentence uttered by an actor is engineered to carry weight. While audiences tend to eat up sports road-to-victory plots loaded with philosophical platitudes, suspension of disbelief is strained to its limits by portentous dialogue which, in overuse, dilutes its potency.
While the performances are laudable, including Mr. Damon who had a wonderful turn as a comically-sociopathic manipulator in Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant., they barely overcome the ridiculous, anemic dialogue. When the film descends into its Rocky-esque climax, proving that exposition of Mandela’s initiatives was purely to set up audience-rousing action, it is beset by bland cinematography and one of the most appalling incorporations of CG I’ve ever seen. A passenger jet approaches Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on the day of the final. I won’t spoil the conclusion but I will say the wide shot is so amusingly horrible it ruins the emotional impact of the moment.
There are a few flashes of greatness in the film. Mr. Mandela himself has said only Morgan Freeman could play him. He’s correct. Here we see Mr. Freeman taking a break from narrating every other film in existence to portray a figure requiring his magniloquent diction. Pienaar and his team mates tour the defunct Robben Island. Inside Mandela’s cell, Pienaar stretches out his arms to gain a sense of the confinement Mandela endured for nearly half of his life. This profoundly impacts Pienaar’s understanding of the scope of what’s at stake in the World Cup. Later in the film (just as in real life) Pienaar states that the World Cup win was for all 43 million South Africans. As the teams take the field in the Cup final, the All Blacks put on a magnificent haka, a traditional, boisterous display of aggression with foot stomping and tongue flashing. After the finals end, Jason is seen for the first time, crashed in his hotel room for a normal night’s rest—relieved they made it through, Madiba in one piece.
These moments are cut too quickly for us to contemplate, making room for nearly thirty laborious minutes of screen time devoted to action—the Cup final. Thus, ultimately, the film falls well short of the character study or gritty sports action of this year’s The Damned United, about Leeds United Association Football Club and Brian Clough, arguably the greatest football manager to never head Team England. Isn’t it a gross injustice that Nelson Mandela should take second place behind Brian Clough?
Invictus • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 • Running Time: 134 minutes • MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language. • Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures