Summary
The rugby half of the movie, with Matt Damon looking like a sandy-haired Tom Brady as the Springboks captain who collaborates with [Nelson Mandela], does an effective job as an introduction to the sport. But the tension of the World Cup is also stymied by constant pauses for uplift. Is there a song using a verse from the William Ernest Henley poem that gives the movie its title? Of course there is. Is there a second ballad, also performed by the South African boy band .Overtone, called "Colorblind"? Yep. And there's also a team visit to the prison on Robben Island, and the sight of Mandela's actual gaol cell is powerful - until Damon looks out of the bars into the yard and sees a vision of [Morgan Freeman] hammering rocks while his voice-over recites a stanza from "Invictus." ("I thank whatever gods there be/For my unconquerable soul.") The movie bludgeons you with inspiration.
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Extract
Half-Nelson
HALF-NELSON
Is it possible to actually choke on inspiration?Clint Eastwood's Invictus begins with Nelson Mandela's release from 27 years of polit...See the full content of this document
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