Wick's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

This magnificent political biography also happens to be a very good movie. Not a great movie, but a great and important story, well told and even better acted by its two leads. Lessons in history and leadership should all be so charismatic.

The movie has rhythms and totems unfamiliar to American audiences, notwithstanding its trio of American superstars: Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon on screen, and Clint Eastwood behind the camera. It’s also perhaps overlong at 2¼ hours.

Fortunately, American audiences can rely on the surefire satisfaction of a happy ending, delivered by familiar stars shining brightly. In the rest of the world, especially the British Commonwealth and other rugby-crazed nations, Invictus will play like a modern and secular Greatest Story Ever Told. Hallelujah.

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Morgan Freeman easily inhabits the iconic Nelson Mandela: twinkling eyes, ready smile, quiet dignity, rolling vocal intonations. For an African-American born and raised in Jim Crow-era Tennessee, playing one of the two greatest black leaders of the 20th Century is a career accomplishment of the highest order.

Matt Damon muscled up impressively, amply filling out his rugby shirt. With lightened hair and chiseled head, he looks every centimeter the Afrikaner ideal. Playing the good-guy hero comes naturally to this All American superstar, though he impresses more than usual here by playing a good-ol-boy rugger star, complete with an apparently accurate Afrikaans accent.

The rest of the large cast range from good down to dangerously close to amateurish, though perhaps we shouldn’t expect bulked-up rugby players to be accomplished thespians.

A few who deserve favorable notice:

• Mcniel Hendriks as Chester Williams, the sole non-white Springbok player. The movie makes amusing hay out of Chester’s overarching fame.
• Scott Eastwood as the handsome Springbok who kicks the winning goal punctuated with a “YEAH!” Papa Clint deserves to take a bow.
• Zak Feaunati as New Zealand rugby superstar Jonah Lomu.

Film - Very Good 3.5

Competently directed, but no more, by the usually stellar Clint Eastwood. Perhaps he was straitjacketed by the story, but he didn’t do as good of job with this slice of history as he did with Flags of our Fathers or Letters from Iwo Jima. If nothing else, there’s too much shoe leather here.

Edge - Tame 1.4

Reality - Natural 1.0

This true story of a newly inaugurated Nelson Mandela embracing his country’s white rugby team in its quixotic quest to win the World Cup sheds light on three topics.

Mandela - The 20th Century produced no greater leader than Mandela, the very ideal of a statesman. Putting his country above himself, he saved South Africa from the self-destruction that was its destiny.

A less admirable aspect of Mandela’s political orientation is the ANC’s embrace of communism, as evidenced by its members calling each other Comrade.

Leadership - Mandela employed an inspired, if basic, sports marketing play. He gained the endorsement of all 42 million South Africans by coopting the affinity of whites for their national rugby team, the Springboks.

Rugby - In the name of Joe Montana, rugby looks to American eyes like drunken football played without pads or helmets. Sloppy and imprecise, this forebear of the NFL also borrows unattractive elements of soccer: game clocks that count up rather than down (Wut!!) and a fundamentally defensive orientation that allows little scoring.

Rugby players, OTOH, are the greatest blokes in all of sports (or “sport” as they say outside the States). They’re like the coolest American football players you’ve ever met, even when they’re drunk and rowdy – which is often. Their charm is summed up by Chester’s statement “I try not to think…it interferes with my rugby.”

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