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Invictus | 
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| Director: Clint Eastwood
Actors: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
Buy Used: $6.74
You Save: $13.20 (66%)
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Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 503
Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Unknown)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Running Time: 134 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: WARD091303D
UPC: 883929060948
EAN: 0883929060948
ASIN: B002JCSWV6
Theatrical Release Date: December 11, 2009
Release Date: May 18, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Nelson mandela in his first term as the south african president initiates a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land: enlist the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 rugby world cup. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/18/2010 Starring: Morgan Freeman Run time: 133 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Clint Eastwood
Amazon.com
After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could've easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood's determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman in a performance of sly charm) took to prevent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team could provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by François Pienaar (an unbelievably buff Matt Damon), the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela's newly integrated security detail, a combination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their ideological differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand's All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham's script takes its title, Latin for "unconquerable," from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during the 27 years he spent in prison. If Damon's accent is more convincing, Freeman serves as the film's heart--and as a timely reminder that reconciliation is never easy, but that it will always trump revenge. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 114
 a winner as usual for Clint Eastwood September 7, 2010
belmarbrat
Only Clint Eastwood could pull this one off with great believability.He studies actors carefully before placing them in his films and it shows.Based on the book by John Carlin "PLAYING THE ENEMY" it deals with Nelson Mandella using rugby matches to bring people together.Its powerfull message is told throughout the film.Matt Damon is the captain of the scrappy team and Morgan Freeman is Mandella.It runs a little over 2 hrs like most of Clint Eastwood films but its worth it.I never really got into rugby but i wouldn't mind watching it now.I don't want to give away any more of the films focus so i will end with this...Clint shoots and he scores with this one!
Invictus September 4, 2010
M. Reynard (Montana)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors. Which is why I had to watch this movie. Pretty much anything with him in it is fair game. And I gotta say, this was a fantastic movie.
Freeman plays Nelson Mandela who has recently been elected President after Apartheid ends in South Africa. Its a time of turmoil however as for the first time black people are given freedoms they haven't had and it makes those who held power for a long time very nervous. Mandela seeks to calm these fears and bring about peace and understanding. And he chooses to do it a very unique way; Rugby.
A violent sport to be sure but also very near and dear to South Africans. Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) is the captain of the Springboks, South Africa's rugby team. The World Cup is coming to South Africa and the Bokkes have not been playing the best. Mandela meets with Pienaar and lets him know that he has great expectations for the team, and gives him some inspiration as well. He also mandates that the Springboks start holding practices with some of the poorer children of the country for greater public appreciation of the team. In between this and their harsh training, its a very long chance that they will be able to win the cup.
The characters for the most part in this movie are very believable. Considering that apartheid was not too long before Mandel meets with these players though, I was amazed that the movie showed them all giving him the greatest respect. I would have though a few team members might have been less than respectful in reality.
The best thing about this movie was the soundtrack. Great music and singing and it seemed very true to Africa. I'm a big fan of World music and the soundtrack did not disappoint in this aspect.
Overall the message was one of triumph and overcoming adversity. I'm always a big fan of feel-good movies and this one didn't disappoint. When you find yourself unconsciously smiling through the second half of the movie, you know its good. I also shed a few tears as well. Clint Eastwood did a marvelous job with this movie and the love and hard work in it truly shows.
Stirring, rousing Eastwood film - one of 2009's best August 30, 2010
Rob (Oxford, UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A quietly superb film from Clint Eastwood, Invictus is another genre defying entry, from a director with a long track record of them, that is not quite a sports movie but neither is it a biography of its world famous central character Nelson Mandela.
Anthony Peckham's clever script is nominally about Mandela's support - over fierce objections from his own party - for the hated national Springbok rugby team & how their improbable victory at the 1995 world cup finally overcame the bitter divisions of the apartheid era to unite the country at a point when civil war between blacks & whites looked inevitable.
But what we have here is equally a subtle study in Mandela's brilliant grasp of strategy & leadership (he has his aides test him on the names of the Springboks so that when he meets them for the first time he can greet them like old friends) & his shrewd recognition that unless the black majority can demonstrate forgiveness to a sceptical & suspicious white minority - one that controls the banks, the police & the army - the country is doomed.
Key to this is attracting much needed foreign investment (the eyes of the world are watching anxiously) & when Mandela learns that a billion people will be watching the rugby cup final he instantly grasps the PR significance of this for his country & for the world if the Springboks can win the cup.
Freeman is impressively understated here not only capturing Mandela's physical mannerisms (the hunched shoulders from spending decades in a tiny cell) but also leaving it up to the audience to decide whether his public concern for those he must work with - expressed through a succession of carefully calibrated speeches - is genuine or simply the work of a brilliant tactician shrewdly exploiting his media image as a saint. There are hints, here & there, of Mandela's estrangement from his own family & these touchingly remind us that behind the public image is a man who paid a very high personal price for his actions.
A convincingly beefed up Matt Damon is also excellent as the Springbok Captain Francois Piennar. Francois doesn't pretend to understand the politics of the situation but he can intuit immediately that the situation he's in concerns something far greater than just a sports victory as he tries to convince his sceptical team mates. As per Freeman it's delightfully understated acting & it's a very good demonstration of Damon's versatility.
There's also a satisfying parallel storyline to Mandela's efforts which centres on his bodyguards. These guys are perpetually fearful of an assassination attempt & it's a task not made any easier by Mandela's habit of wanting to leave his entourage to go on impromptu walkabouts in the crowds. His security detail are a mixed team of black & whites who on first meeting view each other with barely disguised hostility. Indeed, on their initial encounter the first question out of the mouth of the black guard is 'Have you come to arrest me?'! In the hands of a lesser director & writer this would have descended into cringe-making backslapping & we're-all-brothers-under-the-skin proclamations, but Eastwood is too good a director to fall for this & the slow recognition that both teams are on the same side simply develops organically, without ever seeming forced.
The climactic rugby scenes are satisfyingly crunchy, clearly filmed (there's a refreshing absence of Paul Greengrass-style shaky-cam shots) & the gist of the game is communicated clearly even if the specifics remain obscure. There's also a jaw-dropping scene involving a 747 Jumbo that is one of those outrageous moments so WTF? that it could only have come from real life (& indeed did actually happen).
The stadium sequences depicting thousands of cheering supporters are pretty staggering & demonstrate just how far crowd software has come since Gladiator's famous arena shot. As impressive as that was I always felt there was something not quite right about it but the CG crowds packing Ellis stadium here are completely convincing, indeed overwhelming at times. Invictus is also, I think, superbly edited & it seemed to go by remarkably quickly for a two hour plus movie.
As for Eastwood, he's a directorial marvel avoiding so many of the pitfalls inherent in this kind of material. There's no sense of self- importance about Invictus. The film is epic & yet intimate, if that makes any sense. It wears its themes lightly, as if aware that the material is so strong it doesn't need amping up. Eastwood's understated, unemphatic approach amusingly drives the lazy, the impatient & the immature viewer up the wall but I find his firm, gentle style so stirring it had me welling up with tears on more than one occasion.
Whether it's Francois telling his stunned family he's been invited to tea with Mandela, an absolutely exquisitely judged sequence on the infamous penal colony of Robben Island, where Francois imagines Mandela reciting Invictus in his tiny cell, a blink & you'll miss it moment as a tough white bodyguard hurriedly puts his sunglasses on to hide the fact that he's tearing up at his team having reached the final, or gently underscoring the reconciliation theme by crosscutting the climactic match with a black kid outside the stadium slowly edging closer to a group of white cops listening to the match on their car radio, Eastwood makes this kind of ambitious filmmaking, so littered with obvious booby traps look so bloody easy.
Granted Invictus is unabashedly feel good but there's nothing wrong with that provided it's as well done as it is here. It's a film that leaves you buzzing & although corny to say it - yep - uplifted. Recommended, but do try & catch it on the biggest screen you can.
Uplifting and inspiring - a great story for our times August 25, 2010
Irfan A. Alvi (Towson, MD USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This movie focuses on a single episode in the history of South Africa right after the election of Nelson Mandela as President, namely the rise of their rugby team from constant struggles to winning the World Cup.
Let me start by acknowledging some legitimate criticisms of the movie, many of which have been noted by other reviewers: (a) rather limited sociohistorical context is provided, which is an issue for viewers not already fairly familiar with the history of South Africa, (b) the pacing of the plot is uneven, and there are gaps in the story, so there's often a lack of proper buildup and the links between events aren't always clear, and (c) the portrait of Mandela is rather incomplete, especially with regard to why he seems to be such a saintly leader yet has very strained relationships with his family.
Having noted these negatives, I recommend ignoring them, because the main purpose of this movie is to present a story of racial and cultural reconciliation which is powerfully uplifting and inspiring, and the movie fully succeeds in this regard, in no small part because the acting is top-notch across the board. There were many moments during this movie when I was deeply moved, to the extent of recalling the unexpectedly strong emotions I experienced the evening Barack Obama was elected our own President. Perhaps there's some irony that this unification of South Africans was achieved by vanquishing a series of external rivals, but I suppose this is innocent enough when accomplished via sports rather than war (isn't that part of the purpose of international sports events like the Olympics?).
Summing up, the positives of this movie vastly outweigh the negatives, so I highly recommend it.
Lessons for this country August 24, 2010
Robert Roser (Stafford, VA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The lessons are clear and further illustrated by the recent win at St Andrews by an Afrikaaner who wished Nelson Mandela a happy birthday on the day of his victory. Mandela reached out to his former opponents in a racially charged atmosphere. He made the first step and had to face opposition from his own African National Congress. And not just to the rugby team but all of the South African whites, even bringing some of the former body guards of Mr. Declerk to guard himself. At the end Mr. Mandela makes a point of thanking some of the Afrikaaners for displaying the new flag of the new nation.
Mr. Obama's first act after election was to meet with Mr. McCain. Then he met with conservative pundits; met with leaders of the Dixiecrat-Republican party. Made a point of inviting them to work on major legislation with him.
AND THEY SPIT IN HIS FACE.
What a difference.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 114
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