What I'm Watching: Invictus

Warner Bros.

Why I watched it: While it is often the case that many of director Clint Eastwood's movies are melodramatic and borderline cheesy, I for one still think he's a great director. Yes, Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby, and Mystic River all have moments that make my eyes roll, but they're still very like-able movies, for the most part, especially 'Mystic River'. And Unforgiven is probably my favorite Western and definitely Eastwood's best. So now that I've seen just about all of the movies Eastwood has directed, I figured I'd watch Invictus too. For the most part, reviews were positive and it was clear this was a crowd pleasing movie but movie-buff friends of mine thought otherwise. So, I had to see for myself.

What I thought: It's just about all that I expected. It does its best to be majestically uplifting and a soaring crowd pleaser, and in those cases, I think it succeeded. The rugby scenes especially were intense and fun to watch and better done than a lot of sports movies out there. But there was a big chunk missing that I definitely felt. The problem with racism and rebuilding the country of South Africa with Nelson Mandela (played by the always great Morgan Freeman) as the newly elected president is a huge part of the history surrounding this story. Many critics of the historical issues surrounding this movie (my highly studious brother included) scoff at the idea that the movie tries to show how rugby solved racism during this time. And while one might get that impression, it didn't come across that strongly to me. I just think much of the feelings of strife and struggle were lost by not showing/explaining enough and just focusing on the rugby team captain (Matt Damon) and his team of really buff dudes who look like gorillas.

Should YOU watch it: If you're sports movie fan and love movies that lift you up and feel really joyous and rousing at the end, you'll probably really enjoy it. Even though sports movies are generally one of my least favorite genres, I still found myself pretty engaged in this story. I would not suggest it for anyone who is extremely annoyed by historical inaccuracies or failure to address things that may be more important than winning the world cup in rugby.