Blu-Ray Review: ‘Invictus’ Respectfully Pays Tribute, Fails to Emotionally Connect

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CHICAGO – It’s difficult to imagine an awards season without Clint Eastwood. Ever since 2003’s “Mystic River,” he’s released all of his directorial efforts during the last months of the year. Sometimes his films deserve to be contenders (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Letters From Iwo Jima”), and sometimes they don’t. “Invictus” is Eastwood’s most unimaginative Oscar bait yet.

Morgan Freeman is the perfect actor to play Nelson Mandela…too perfect, in fact. There must be countless great actors, unknown to mainstream moviegoers, who could’ve knocked this role out of the park. Freeman is certainly one of our great actors, but he’s played this type of wise, contemplative, larger-than-life role so often that it’s become a cliché. When he played God in “Bruce Almighty,” the casting seemed inevitable. That may be why Mandela himself couldn’t think of any actor to play himself onscreen, other than Freeman.

HollywoodChicago.com Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0
Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

Everything about “Invictus” feels too safe, too calculated, too polished for prestige. It follows President Mandela during his first year in office, as he works to unite the people of South Africa. The film doesn’t bother to explain “apartheid” to younger viewers, opting for Mandela’s philosophy that “the past is the past.” There’s not much racial tension onscreen, except for the initial chilliness between Mandela’s black and white bodyguards. Eastwood settles into the familiar structure of an inspirational sports movie, as Mandela gets the entire nation to rally behind the Springbok rugby team, which stood (for many citizens) as a reminder of their recent bloody past. This simple theme of unity is the most powerful and resonant aspect of the picture. The scenes where Mandela risks alienating his base in order to achieve peace may lead some viewers to draw provocative parallels to President Obama’s unsuccessful attempts at reaching across the aisle.

Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon star in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus.
Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon star in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus.
Photo credit: Warner Home Video

Freeman’s performance is witty and nicely subdued, though he never really disappears into the character (his lip posturing and mannered accent are all too obvious). Equally distracting is the fake nose on Matt Damon, who plays Springbok captain François Pienaar. I knew nothing about rugby going into the film, and I knew even less coming out. According to the film’s incoherent rugby scenes, the sport looks like a mix of football, soccer, cheerleading and a game of hot potato. The last act is entirely devoted to the 1995 Rugby World Cup championship game, where Eastwood relies far too heavily on slow-motion reaction shots to build suspense.

The film is named after a poem written by William Ernest Henley, which Mandela had written on a scrap of paper during his twenty-seven year incarceration. There’s a quietly moving moment when Pienaar visits Mandela’s former cell, as Freeman recites the poem, reminding us that he is still one of the few living actors capable of evoking the depths of the human soul. Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life is clearly an ideal subject to tackle on film, and “Invictus” functions as an agreeable starting point. Now it’s time for the Mandela biopic that doesn’t rely on big names or the “big game” to get butts in the seats. That one might even be Oscar-worthy.

Invictus was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 18th, 2010.
Invictus was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 18th, 2010.
Photo credit: Warner Home Video

“Invictus” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English, French and Spanish audio tracks, and includes a DVD and digital copy of the film. The primary making-of featurette, “Mandela Meets Morgan,” has a misleading title, since Freeman’s meeting with the legendary peacemaker is merely glimpsed at (Mandela himself has precious little screen time in the special features). Eastwood calls Mandela the “ultimate instinctive politician,” and stresses the importance of shooting at locations in South Africa, including Mandela’s actual prison cell on Robben Island. He also reveals the difficulty of shooting the rugby scenes, and says that he even tried putting a camera in a rugby ball, which captured footage that would make the Blair Witch hurl. Another brief featurette, “Matt Damon Plays Rugby,” doesn’t help make the sport any more comprehensible, but it does illustrate Damon’s Oscar-worthy dedication to his role. There’s also a promising 22-minute preview of the new documentary by Richard Schickel, “The Eastwood Factor,” which follows the filmmaker as he wanders through the Warner lot, visiting old film sets while reminiscing about his career.

Yet what really seals the deal on this Blu-Ray is the fascinating Picture-in-Picture commentary, which provides invaluable historical and personal context for each scene in the film, making it a vastly more moving and rewarding experience. The commentary blends behind-the-scenes footage and archival photos with extended cast and crew interviews. But the best insights come from people such as Pienarr, Springbok manager Morne du Plessis, Mandela’s executive assistant Zelda La Grange, bodyguard Linga Moonsamy, and the head of the presidential protection unit, Jason Tshabalala. On the day of the World Cup, Pienarr says that the moment he saw Mandela step out onto the field in a Springbok jersey, he was so overwhelmed that he couldn’t bring himself to sing the national anthem, out of fear that he would burst into tears. It’s unfortunate that “Invictus” ultimately fails to capture that level of emotional impact.

‘Invictus’ is released by Warner Home Video and stars Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng, Matt Stern, Julian Lewis Jones, Adjoa Andoh and Scott Eastwood. It was written by Anthony Peckham and directed by Clint Eastwood. It was released on May 18th, 2010. It is rated PG-13.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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