Invictus

Charlie Klein

Clint Eastwood's newest joint Invictus paints a rainbow picture of South Africa circa 1995 in the direct political aftermath of the end of Apartheid. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela, one of the most revolutionary political leaders of the 20th century. Matt Damon stars as Francois Pienaar, captain of the Springbok, the South African Rugby National Team.

At first when I saw the trailers for this movie, I was a little leery about seeing it. Granted, I love Morgan Freeman in every movie he has been in (with the exception of The Big Bounce) and Matt Damon has a decent track record of making good movies. That being said, sports movies have a tendency to reach for cliches instead of creating something new. Invictus is pretty far removed from your parent's sports movies.

Invictus resonates in your soul long after the final credits role. The story of the Springbok illustrates sport in its most influential state. An almost all-white rugby team brought a disparate nation together. It transcended cultural divisions and delivered a nation into an unimaginable cultural renaissance.

In almost every single journalism class I have ever taken, my peers usually take sports news to task as being unimportant compared to politics and the economy. They comment that sports is not serious and write it off as fluff. What they find themselves unable to understand is that many people care more about sports than they do about the new president of some country they've never seen. Examples like Invictus show that sports has the power to change the world.

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.