REVIEWS > > MOVIE WITH THABO MPAKANYANE CLINT EASTWOOD’S INVICTUS THE MANDELA AND RUGBY MOVIE E xpectations of epic and gory gladiatorial contests in deathly arenas accompanied by throngs of frenzied mob support for their bloodied side will not materialise here. This movie attempts to dramatically present the behind-the-scenes political events leading up to South Africa’s tumultuous Rugby World Cup victory in 1995 as interpreted from John Carlin’s book, Playing the Enemy – Nelson Mandela and the Game that made a Nation. The title of this controversial production has had a chameleon-like history. Its ultimate tag – Invictus, probably plays to the title of the book in invoking the adversarial nature of the game and more relevantly for the movie-makers, the black-and-white palette that pre-independence South Africa came to represent. If you ask me, Invictus (unconquerable in Latin) really subthemes with very strong emotional refrains throughout the movie; particularly with reference to those allusions that are symbolic of The Man himself and his indomitable spirit, both on and off the Island. Nothing beggars belief more than the announcement that Dirty Harry himself or Inspector Callaghan has escaped Planet Hollywood and located here on terra firma to grapple with such mundane issues like political bigotry and racial intolerance. How on earth can he manage that giant leap of faith? Well with some clever intercession, maybe it could be managed; and in comes the closest thing to Hollywood’s version of an African, as Morgan Freeman would have us believe, and indeed through some extraordinary leap of the imagination, Bruce Almighty does pull something from out’ta the unwritten scripts by lulling us all into this mass deception that Mandela is Morgan Freeman or is it the other way round in this case? Nothing seems to be what it’s not; so what’s in a name anyway? But more to the point; Invictus, irrespective of its varied interpretations and critiques, is a story. Rather it represents a perspective of a real life episode in the struggle of the young South African democracy to succeed in spite of the myriad of state and other non-state but nevertheless nation-threatening sideshows that seem to be the order of the day. So this particular sideshow that the 1995 World Cup Rugby spectacle comes to represent also had the potential to becoming a unifying agent in this young state’s long walk to real freedom and unity – at least according to some. Others might just think that we are overrating the importance of a mere sports encounter – after all, that’s what it was, in spite of the imbued symbolic significance it was accorded by those who were seen to be clutching at celluloid straws. Still others, might disagree, and refer us to Brazil and the critical importance of a world cup victory to that country’s political fortunes. In his wisdom, Nelson Mandela the statesman, and quite ironically, without any consultation with his ruling colleagues, decides to invoke any means necessary to see through his dream of uniting this erstwhile nation-in-nameonly. When the world’s sporting glare was focused on the rugby spectacle, Madiba unilaterally acts in the interests of his vision and his country to harness the potential goodwill that the world cup euphoria stands to deliver, especially if an improbable triumph could be pulled off. So for a fanatical albeit minority of 56 the afro p olita n • I s s u e 1 5 www. a fro polit a n . co. z a