I Suck At Invictus

On Friday, I fed my movie addiction by watching yet another movie while Karen and our baby daughter (Briana) were sound asleep. That movie: Invictus. Now, I suck at Invictus.

(The following video is a trailer for Invictus.)


For anyone curious, Invictus which was directed by Clint Eastwood, stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The film is based on the book, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation, by John Carlin, which depicts South Africa after the fall of apartheid and the 1995 Rugby World Cup that was held in the nation.

Given the interesting topic, I really wanted to be wowed by the movie. At best, I thought the movie was just good. Perhaps I my expectations were too high. Don't get me wrong. The film was interesting. I was probably just expecting more.

Of course, I think what may have also influenced my opinion is my knowledge, or lack thereof, of the game of rugby. I have no idea as to the rules of the game. Consequently, I felt that the dramatic sport sequences of the movie were lost on me.

It's too bad that I don't know anything about rugby. After all, the sport supposedly racially unified South Africa. For anyone curious as to how the sport unified the country, the national rugby team was a symbol of white supremacy prior to Mandela taking office. Eventually, non-whites begin rooting for the team alongside their white counterparts as the World Cup approaches.

And if anyone is curious as to why the movie is even called Invictus, the Latin word means undefeated or unconquered. There was a short Victorian poem called Invictus written by British poet William Ernest Henley which Mandela uses to inspire the rugby captain.

The poem is as follows:

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.