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Invictus (Film)

by Erin Free | January 19, 2010 11:43 | Edited January 19, 2010 11:44

Intimate, passionate and entertaining change of pace for Eastwood.

Despite the Oscars on his mantlepiece, his status as an honest-to-god American icon, and the reams of acclaim that he's achieved as a director, Clint Eastwood is a remarkably low key and unassuming filmmaker. While most of his lauded peers show off stylistically, Eastwood keeps it straight and simple. He serves the story, gets the absolute best out of his actors, and only gently leaves his fingerprints on a project despite having handled it from beginning to end.

 

Eastwood is also a teller of small, intimate stories driven by rich characterisation that usually end in tragedy or with a hard fought sense of the bittersweet. Invictus, however, is a massive left turn for Eastwood the director: it's a big story told on a large scale within the arena of international sport and politics. Any other director would probably have bled the material dry, over-stacking every big moment with greasy sentimentality and inflating the film with unnecessary melodrama. Not Clint Eastwood.

 

Invictus sensibly concentrates on one small aspect of a much larger story, as new, officially elected South African leader Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman delivers a magisterial masterclass here on restraint and quiet power) seeks to heal his wounded nation by uniting them behind the Springboks rugby team (traditionally despised by blacks during Apartheid) at the 1995 Rugby World Cup held in South Africa.

 

Mandela's partner in this seemingly impossible mission is the dedicated, noble team captain, Francois Pienaar (a brilliant turn from Matt Damon), who brings together his disparate, and frankly sub-par players, through his own passion and fiery sense of commitment.

 

Despite Invictus' many big moments (including a compelling final game in which the underdone Springboks take on the highly fancied New Zealand All Blacks in front of a massive crowd), it's the smaller details of the film that really stick: Mandela's multiracial security team slowly building a keen sense of mutual respect; Pienaar's nerves upon meeting Mandela for the first time; Mandela sneaking out of important political meetings to check the rugby scores; and Pienaar silently visiting the cell where Mandela was imprisoned for so many years.

 

Eastwood seems to inherently know that even in a big story, it's the intimate moments that hold everything together, and he is never overwhelmed by the size of the story. With the joyous, wildly entertaining Invictus (a far more upbeat film than Eastwood's recent works), the veteran filmmaker changes it up and reaches impressively outward, bravely proving himself a master storyteller on any stage.