If you get a chance, check out "Invictus", Clint Eastwood's new movie about Nelson Mandela's decision to use the Springbok rugby team as a cause to unite South Africa after the end of apartheid.
Matt Damon is good, Morgan Freeman (of Clarksdale, Mississippi) is pure, undiluted greatness.
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.
-William Ernest Henley
3 comments:
Great movie. Definitely worth a trip to the theater even in a blizzard. Best sports flik in a decade.
http://republicanredefined.com/2009/11/25/world-cup-2010-obamas-next-global-initiative/
I gotta say your down the road neighbor from Mississippi played Nelson Mandela to a "T"... unfortunately, Nelson Mandela is boring as a character... I just mean from a drama standpoint. When he talks, it's like this (say in super hard to understand African accent - quietly in monotone): "I em aboot to say som-ting wise. I em now sayin' som-ting wise. I have jus said somting wise."
Personally, I was a little bored until the end. Then there was a lot of happy peppy people jumping up and down. That made me happy. But watching happy people jump up and down will usually make you happy.
In retrospect, there was a little bit of a completely unintentional drawing back of the curtains. Mandela says basically, "I can manipulate the people into having a strong sense of nationalism and 'bring the races together' by showing support of the former 'white favored' rugby team. I can trot them out and put them in front of the media -and support them and if they win, we all win!"
It's a little 'small' of me to think that, but instead of (irony, irony, irony) loosening the chains of a centrally planned economy impacting the poor - we'll just have a super awesome Rugby Super Bowl!!! Everyone will be HAPPY!!!
Didn't anyone notice how many times they mentioned that the South African economy was going to hell in a handbasket? I think that's the truth that Eastwood brought to the table. That and shining a light on Mandela's inability to control his pants and focusing on treating a private team like his own fantasy football team while (not explicitly stated) creating policies to keep the poor in poverty.
But it was better than "Weekend at Bernies 2: Rigor Mortis-Electric Boogaloo"... I still prefer the semi-inadvertently racist movie "The Blind Side" a little better. It also has Mississippi ties too.
TLG,
I kinda agree, But I like any movie where the government, at any point, is shown to be the bad guy.
The outfit that took away Mandela's freedom, for the most part, has the same motivation as all other govts that try to take away freedom: power and control.
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