Invictus

Theteams were separated by a cyclone fence, a road and a world of difference. Onone side of the street in South Africa, a white rugby team in neat uniformskicked the ball around a manicured field; on the other, a ragtag black teamplayed in the dirt. And suddenly, rushing down the road, came a motorcade withthe man who would bring both sides together, Nelson Mandela, just released fromprison after 30 years. It would not be an easy task. The black players linedthe road and cheered. The whites stared sullenly at the man who embodied theend of their long reign.

Invictus is a story about sports bringing a societytogether. It stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first blackpresident, and Matt Damon as Francois Plenaar, captain of the Springbok rugbyteam, a symbol of white South African pride. Director Clint Eastwood set themessage in place with the opening scene of a nation divided, split down themiddle by race, separated by privilege and poverty, and given hope by a manwith the faith to overcome those divisions.

Unfortunately,the rest of the film is not as cinematic, and unwinds with a leisurely pace atodds with the dynamism of rugbya fast moving sport, played in shorts andjerseys without helmets or padding, that makes American football look like agame for the timid. Offsetting this is Freeman’s powerful performance as theregal Mandela, the scion of African nobility who brought democracy to allpeople in a country ruled by a white minority. Freeman exudes the enormousgravity of Mandela’s dignity, a presence that must have given even his jailerspause, while granting the great man a twinkle in the eye and a dry sense ofhumor.

Invictus uses Mandela’s politically savvy effort to rally South Africaaround Springbok, as the team sprinted into the World Cup games, to symbolizehis campaign of reconciliation. Black rugby fans inevitably rooted for foreignteams to snub the whites and Mandela’s party, the African National Congress,planned to change Springbok’s name and colors to eradicate a hated reminder ofthe country’s white past.

Mandeladisagreed. “Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fearthat is why it is apowerful weapon,” he said in his characteristic blend of profound wisdom andastute pragmatism. Rather than disband Springbok, and alienate the country’salready wary whites, he transformed it into a team that represented the entirenation. In this he found a willing partner in Plenaar, played by Damon with arugged athletic edge that can’t entirely eclipse his persona as the wholesomeboy next door.

Whateverhistorical or psychological shortcuts Eastwood took in telling the story, Invictus depicts a great truth about oneof the 20th century’s most remarkable figures. Rather then the bloodlettingmany expected when power shifted from white to black, Mandela chose the highroad of forbearance and peacemaking.