Invictus (2009)

Directed by

Clint Eastwood

Genre

drama film, biographical film, sport film, historical film

Country

South Africa, United States

Runtime

2h 14m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 4,374 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

South African president Nelson Mandela works to unite a racially divided country by supporting the national rugby team, the Springboks, as they prepare for the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The film follows Mandela and the team captain Francois Pienaar as they navigate challenges on and off the field.

inspirationalupliftingdignifiedearnestdramaticsteady-pacedhopefulpatriotic

What happens

Invictus is a 2009 docudrama sports film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. It is the third collaboration between Eastwood and Freeman after Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), and the first between Eastwood and Damon, followed by Hereafter (2010). The story is based on the 2008 John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The national team, the Springboks, were not expected to perform well, the team having only recently returned to high-level international competition following the dismantling of apartheid—the country was hosting the World Cup, thus earning an automatic entry. Freeman portrays South African President Nelson Mandela while Damon played Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks, the South African rugby union team. Invictus was released in the United States on 11 December 2009. The film is named after a poem of the same name by British poet William Ernest Henley, which serves as a central plot element in the film. The film was met with positive critical reviews and earned Academy Award nominations for Freeman (Best Actor) and Damon (Best Supporting Actor). The film grossed $122.2 million on a budget of $50–60 million. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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