Invictus

conceived in fire · 11-01-2009, 11:10 PM

I decided to check Apple trailers today and saw this on the front page. It's produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, and stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

“Invictus tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match."

Trailers

Looks awesome.

**DKelly** · 11-02-2009, 12:50 AM

Meh, I'm not all that anxious about it.

Admittedly, I love Clint Eastwood and have a lot of respect for him as a filmmaker and I'm sure the film is well-made, but, watching the trailer, I can't help but get the feeling that Clint intentionally made this as blatant Oscar bait. Seriously, Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela? Seriously, that's such an obvious win in any category the performance is placed in that it's not even fair to the rest of the nominees. Seriously I can give you three reasons why Morgan is guaranteed a win for this performance:

1. It's freaking Morgan Freeman. The Academy loves him.
2. It's a portrayal of a real-life, political figure. The Academy adores those types of performances.
3. It's a portrayal of Nelson Mandela. Knowing the typical Academy and Hollywood political preferences (they tend to be more left-wing than not), and considering the reputation Mandela has, the Academy will not likely pass up an opportunity to show their support for him.

[/rant]

Simply put, I'm not too excited for this. I guess I'm just not that into films that rely mostly on making obvious, blatant political statements (left or right-wing). Not my kind of thing.

conceived in fire · 11-03-2009, 07:55 PM

The thing is, what if he deserves it? Ledger was practically guaranteed the Oscar last year because it was posthumous and The Dark Knight was so huge, but I think he totally deserved it, and Rourke was the only other person who I think did as well.

Also, judging from the trailer, the point of the film is overcoming racism, uniting people, "you can do anything if you believe in it enough", etc.

Oscar bait or not, Eastwood and Freeman's track records say this will be great.

**DKelly** · 11-03-2009, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by conceived in fire

The thing is, what if he deserves it? Ledger was practically guaranteed the Oscar last year because it was posthumous and The Dark Knight was so huge, but I think he totally deserved it, and Rourke was the only other person who I think did as well.

Also, judging from the trailer, the point of the film is overcoming racism, uniting people, "you can do anything if you believe in it enough", etc.

Oscar bait or not, Eastwood and Freeman's track records say this will be great.

Then he deserves to win, by all means. If he delivers a brilliant Oscar-worthy performance in a terrific well-made film, then by all means, he ought to win (and I have no doubt that the film will be a well-directed and well-acted film). All I'm saying is doesn't having Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in a Clint Eastwood film sound a little too much like an obvious attempt at Oscar consideration to you?

**thesteve** · 11-03-2009, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DKelly

Then he deserves to win, by all means. If he delivers a brilliant Oscar-worthy performance in a terrific well-made film, then by all means, he ought to win (and I have no doubt that the film will be a well-directed and well-acted film). All I'm saying is doesn't having Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in a Clint Eastwood film sound a little too much like an obvious attempt at Oscar consideration to you?

Maybe...or maybe Clint just saw an opportunity to take a great story and put it into film...

**DKelly** · 11-04-2009, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thesteve

Maybe...or maybe Clint just saw an opportunity to take a great story and put it into film...

That's probably true. Still, the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way for some reason.

bowstaff981 · 11-04-2009, 10:18 AM

I'm with DKelly here in that I'm not too excited about this one. I'm not really big on movies like this that seem easy. I mean we all know that Mandela's story is inspirational, so do we really need a movie to show us? When seeing movies that are based on true stories I prefer that they be about little known events or people, it's just more interesting to me.