Invictus

I watched the movie Invictus yesterday. Some of you might know that this is a newish movie, directed by Clint Eastwood and has Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in the lead.

A movie about South Africa's rugby world cup victory in 1995.

Great film!

This entry is not about the "plot" of the film. We already know what happens. The damned springboks beat the All blacks. But this movie is about the undercurrents surrounding that famous victory for the boks.

South Africa to me has been a very perplexing country. Fascinating. The first memory of South Africa for me was one of my uncles moving there to expand his career. The second memory of South Africa is it being an African country with white cricket players. (HUH?!). Various other memories of South Africa. Mainly concerning rugby matches in the Trinations series.

But the history of South Africa is unique. Apartheid (Translating to blatant racism and second class citizenship based on race), only ended in South Africa in the early 1990's as an OFFICIAL national policy. The centrestone of this being Nelson Mandela, who needs no introduction.
South Africa is in someways like India. Royalty and Poverty exist side by side. It has some of the flashest malls and city centers and yet has the highest per capita incidence of HIV. It is called the rainbow nation for no slight reason. It IS really a country of all races and colours.

The story revolves around the weak Springbok rugby team, when Nelson Mandela was elected their first black president in 1994. It was a time, of  great uncertainty perhaps, for the white afrikaners of South Africa. Many feared a violent backlash. Many feared that the situation will deteriorate into like what has happened in Zimbabwe.
The film portrays Nelson Mandela as the crafty as well as very foresighted and truly genuine politician and statesman that he is. He very correctly foresaw that for South Africa's democracy to succeed, harmony between whites and blacks was paramount. He saw the rugby world cup of 1995, which was hosted by South Africa as a great opportunity to make a start on this.

He encouraged, inspired the springboks to transform from an average team to the one that beat the All Blacks in that grand final in front of a huge crowd in Durban. And in the process won the hearts of all South Africans.

Morgan Freeman in my opinion is one of the great actors of our time. He plays the part of Nelson Mandela. There is simply no other person more eligible for the part. And Clint Eastwood. He's making some really great films, that guy.....

To end with, here is the poem, which gives the movie its title. Which kept Mandela believing. Which will keep you believing too.



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.