Review of Invictus (2009) by Grant T — 03 Mar 2017

Invictus is an exciting and motivationally touching experience. You will find this movie to be breathtaking and inspiring. Whether or not you want a confidence booster or just simply want to see a good movie, Invictus is your film to watch. Starring Morgan Freeman as (Nelson Mandela) and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar.

The movie genre could be associated to other movies like Rudy, and Remember the Titans. Both of which endure conflicts involved within the realm of Football while Invictus has more to do with rugby, the conflict is similar but on a national stage. While the movie does star a rugby team in South Africa, it could be compared to other movies like The Butler, which is a movie about racial divisions within the United States during the 1960's. Invictus associates the racial issues that occurred within South Africa during the 1990's which subsequently brought the country together through its national rugby team.

The movie is based off the events that occurred in South Africa when Nelson Mandela ran for president in 1993. The movie features a rugby team called the "Springboks." This team had received some scrutiny within its own country during the 1990's because the people felt like it only partially represented themselves.

In the early 1990's Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. He was there because he stood up against the government in behalf of human rights. Following him leaving prison he ran for President of South Africa and won! Despite winning Mandela is left with a broken country that is utterly divided. In his attempts to bring the country together, he decided to unite the country through its national rugby team (Springboks).

The movie ultimately took a turn when Mandela made a bold move by inviting Francois who was the rugby team captain into his office. Mandela admonished Francois about his plans to utilize the rugby team as a racial instrument to unite the country of Africa. At the time the rugby team had been suffering many losses. Francois took this challenge to heart and saw the vision of Mandela and ran with it. After many attempts to unite this team, they did end up winning many games and ended up making it to the world cup! These inspiring events leading up to that moment where the springboks united the country will surely shed a tear or two.

The beauty of this story is brought together in love as an entire country finds themselves completely united as they watch their team play in this tremendous journey of unification. Although, the outcome of this movie is obvious, it will both touch and move all those who seek to be inspired.