Movie Review: Invictus

Invictus (PG)****

Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

The Oscars. The Golden Globes. The Screen Actors Guild. The Directors Guild. Critics' Choice. Teen Choice. The Best WTF Moment (yes, that's an MTV award, apparently). It's certainly backslapping season in Hollywood.

But I for one can't help thinking back to last year, when one of the best-reviewed and most loved films - Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino - barely bothered the judges with any major nominations.

That bothered me. And it will bother me much more if Invictus, Eastwood's new film with Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela, does bother the judges this year, because it's not quite as good.

Don't get me wrong. Invictus - Latin for "unconquerable" - is a thoughtful, provocative and rousing film that echoes but rarely matches the power, grace and dignity of Gran Torino.

That's thanks, mostly, to Eastwood's trademark steady pace and understated tone. But an epic about Nelson Mandela has been in the works for a decade, and Freeman was made to play the political prisoner-turned-first black president of South Africa.

So a rousing sports-driven drama about how President Mandela united his racially divided nation by backing the Springboks - a source of white pride there - in the lead-up to the 1995 World Rugby Cup seems a touch, well, underwhelming.

The Shawshank Redemption it ain't. There's only a glimpse of the tiny cell in the prison where Mr Mandela spent 27 years breaking rocks into pebbles with a pick axe, and only flashbacks to the racist, violent apartheid regime.

It's no big-budget Gandhi-esque Hollywood tearjerker, as some may expect. Instead, in his trademark style, Eastwood focuses on a small slice of history as a microcosm of Nelson Mandela's epic story.

Shot on location in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Invictus begins with President Mandela (Freeman) taking office after the country's first free elections.

Trouble brews from day one, with the new president refusing to dismiss whites from his staff and even adding white Afrikaner nationalists to his black security team.

It's the kind of decision - part moral righteousness and part political calculation - that would mark his presidency.

He knew his biggest challenge was not in placating whites, who feared his election was the start of some almighty payback. It was in inspiring forgiveness and integration in blacks, who all but expected payback. Not an easy task, but he led by example.

So when there is a push to change the name and colours of the Springboks - the almost all-white rugby team followed by almost all whites (black people prefer soccer) - the president not only refuses but sees a political opportunity.

By backing this "symbol of racism", he would win over white nationalists while showing his black supporters that peace is possible.

He controversially befriends the team captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), hoping he will inspire the underdogs to win the World Cup and convince the team to be a symbol of progress after apartheid.

There are rousing rugby scenes - perhaps too many - as the Springboks go on to meet the all-conquering All Blacks in the final. And that makes Invictus a strange kind of political sports movie, showing how a national hero harnessed his oppressors and inspired reconciliation.

As the great man, Freeman is perfect in looks, accent and mannerisms, showing as much frowning concern as keen wit. Damon is disciplined and thoughtful as Pienaar, and also has the accent down pat.

Yet this is Eastwood's film, and given that it's about forgiveness and reconciliation, it's a very different one for the man who's built a career - from Pale Rider to Dirty Harry and Unforgiven to Gran Torino - on justice and revenge.

I imagine it would have been as hard for Eastwood to make as to understand why, upon his release, Nelson Mandela didn't go out and buy a .45 Magnum that could blow his jailers' heads clean off.

So will Invictus win awards? Probably. Hollywood has a tradition of handing out "apology awards" to actors and directors who should have won for a previous film.

Witness Scorsese for The Departed instead of his many other (better) films or Heath Ledger for playing The Joker instead of a gay cowboy. And there was plenty of outrage after the injustice of the Gran Torino snubs.

Justice, as Nelson Mandela and Eastwood would agree, is an ironic beast.