Review of Invictus (2009) by Chads. — 12 Dec 2009

The cooler head prevails, so the Springboks retain their name, their emblem and colors, and the baggage of their apartheid affiliated past that goes along with it all. Free at last, during a town hall meeting, the National Sports Council has payback on its agenda, but President Mandela(Morgan Freeman) urges the recently emancipated members to reconsider its kneejerk reaction, "and surprise them(the Afrikaaners) with compassion, restraint, and generosity.

" The filmmaker then shrewdly cuts to the vehicle containing a triumphant Mandela and his aide, celebrating the narrow margin of victory in favor of the Springboks' continuing survival as a national sporting enterprise.

With his speech of showing compassion toward the Afrikaaners, Mandela creates two factions: those who are in a forgiving mood, and those who are not, and if the filmmaker stayed in that decision room, the imagined dialogue between both factions would give the moviegoer a more rounded picture of South Africa's black constituency.

According to "Invictus", all it took was a Mandela-run p.r. campaign, in which the Springboks held rugby clinics in shanty towns, that convinced the native population to cheer on their former oppressors, a team composed primarily of Afrikaaners.

The native blacks are painted as being naive, or worse, simple-minded. For instance, Eunice(Sibongile Nojila), the Pienaars' housekeeper, asks Francois(Matt Damon) to relay a message for President Mandela that makes her sound like a bright child.

And then her face lights up like a child's, late in the film, when it dawns on the maid that the extra ticket for the country's match against New Zealand, is indeed, for her. While Mandela had already made peace with the country's apartheid past, a majority of his people probably wasn't, and that's what "Invictus" neglects to show.