Last night Campanastan's President-for-Life and his wife descended into the masses to see Invictus, Clint Eastwood's film based on John Carlin's book, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation.
The film tells the story of Nelson Mandela's first years as South Africa's post-apartheid president and his delicate walk between his rapid supporters, many of whom sought 'R 'n R' - Revenge and Retribution - quite different from Mandela's vision of 'R 'n R' - Reconciliation and Rebuilding - and the white South Africans, whose support he desperately needed.
He decides to use the Springboks, the national rugby team and a symbol of the Afrikaans culture, and their quest to win the World Cup of rugby in 1995 as a mechanism to unite the country. Despite skepticism from his advisers and the rugby team itself, the scheme works, due in large part to Francois Pienaar, the rugby team's captain, who soon realizes that he and his teammates are not just a sports team.
View a trailer.
The title is taken from the Latin word meaning 'unconquered', and the poem that Mandela often referred to during his 27 years imprisoned on Robben Island.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
---Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
I memorized this poem in high school; I remember the last two lines.
An uplifting movie about two men -- one remembered by all, one forgotten by many - who rose to the occasion.
And why sports are often far more than what they seem.
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. " -- Nelson Mandela
Comments