Readers of this website know that the regular film reviewer can sometimes find himself quite the sucker for a good sports movie, despite being utterly unathletic himself. These movies tend to talk about the nobler aspirations of sports, the exaltation of victory over impossible odds and testing the limits and indeed exceeding what human endurance is capable of. Most professional sport is rarely like that of course, but every once and a while, there’s an occasion where reality matches perception. A game does mean something more in Clint Eastwood’s new film Invictus, which chronicles the true life story of South African President Nelson Mandela and how he used a very important rugby match as a way to unite his people shortly after the end of apartheid.

Based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation, the filmtakes us back to 1995 South Africa. Mandela, released from prison just five years earlier, ascends to the Presidency thanks to the overwhelming support of black South Africans voting in their first election. Amongst the laundry list of things on his to do list is to find a way to heal his nation, to assuage irrational white fears while tempering optimistic black expectations. Mandela found an interesting method to foster togetherness: the 1995 rugby World Cup which just so happened to be being played in South Africa that year. The improbable victory of the Springboks, South Africa’s national team, ended up being the remarkable first step to making South Africans a united people.

Clint Eastwood’s deliberate pace suits the story well as he’s able to follow multiple stories all going to the same place. Amongst the more interesting is the integration of Mandela’s security team with members of special branch joining the ranks of the new President’s trusted team of bodyguards. There’s a palpable and believable tension as the two teams begin working together and a mutual respect that’s fostered as they watch Mandela bring the country together. Interestingly, Eastwood’s proclivity for taking it easy holds no bearing on the rugby scenes. It’s almost not quite explainable how the action on field is captured but there’s a certain grace to the game found in the way Eastwood and his long time cinematographer Tom Stern present it. The close-ups are where you really get the intensity though, as you see, hear and feel the crunch at every point of contact.

Not that Invictus is heavy on action though. Eastwood once again compels tremendous performances from his actors. Of course it was a foregone conclusion that only the stature and presence of Morgan Freeman would be adequate to fill the shoes of Mandela, and it seems that Mandela himself agreed saying that Freeman was his first choice as his portrayer. Bizarrely though, there were at times, to me it seemed, that Mandela was being portrayed as too ethereal, like everything he said was out of a Penguins Book of Quotes. Freeman worked it to his advantage, but it seemed like any occasion to humanize Mandela, like the difficult relationship between him and his children, was only briefly touched upon, but quickly put away. Matt Damon does well as Francois Pienaar, Captain of the Springboks, managing a nice balance of bewilderment in being Mandela’s ambassador for the new South Africa while quietly rising to the President’s aspirations.

As for the movie on whole, I can’t remember ever seeing Eastwood get either this hopeful or this sentimental. Even his Flags of Our Fathers, the story behind one of the most iconic moments in American patriotism, was dripping with cynicism and dubious morality. Invictus can at times feel like an inspirational overload, but its point is well taken all the same. There’s a great power in the combination in the words of screenwriter Anthony Peckham with the images developed by Eastwood. And it’s also nice to see Mandela’s message of forgiveness and reconciliation presented without a strong counterbalance of voices proclaiming revenge and restitution. Invictus is inspiration plain and true; a film experience utterly positive no matter one or two creative differences. And that goes for non-rugby fans as well.