Invictus - Clint Eastwood Directs Mandela Film
Morgan Freeman is playing Nelson Mandela
Sep 23, 2009
Invictus is not a biopic. Clint Eastwood is telling the story of the relationship between Mandela played by the perfectly cast Morgan Freeman and South Africa's Rugby team captain Francois Pienaar played by Mat Damon.
South Africa's first multi-racial election was held in 1994 and Nelson Mandela became the countries first black President. He won by a majority and was declared President of a country in which tensions between the black majority and the white minority were still rising. The issue from the racial divide presented Mandela with a dilemma, he was committed to being at peace with the country's white minority and wanted a unified nation.
The 1995 Rugby World Cup
Later when South Africa was selected to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Nelson Mandela saw an opportunity to unify the nation, he believed he could bring people together through sport. Using the slogan 'one team, one country' he encouraged black South African's to get behind the previously hated South African rugby team, the Springboks. Remarkably this actually worked, in the months leading up to the tournament, support for the Springboks surged in the black community and the news channels across the world started to broadcast video footage of whites and blacks from all over the country chanting 'one team, one country.'
The Springboks went on to beat tournament favourites the New Zealand All Blacks, in an epic world cup final. Nelson Mandela was chosen to present the trophy to the team captain Francois Pienaar, a white South African. While handing the trophy to Pienaar, Mandela wore a Springbok shirt, this created controversy amongst some South Africans but the majority saw it as a major and positive step towards removing the tensions between the white and black South Africans.
High Expectations from Clint Eastwood
With Clint Eastwood directing the movie expectations are very high. Every film he has directed over the last few years under his own banner Malpaso Productions have been cinematic masterpieces. last years brilliant Changeling starring Angelina Jolie and Malpaso Productions biggest hit Gran Torino were arguably the best films of 2008.
The success of Malpaso films have all been due to Eastwood's classic style of film making. He makes sure his films all have: A tight screenplay, a strong story, a brilliant score and great performances from all the actors involved.
For Invictus to be a success it's setting requires a lot of attention to detail, it's story requires a strong focus and the performances need to be perfect. Having Eastwood behind the camera with Morgan Freeman and Mat Damon in the lead roles guarantees the film will have all the required qualities.
The film will be released in the US on 11 December 2009 and in the UK on 05 February 2010.
