Review: Invictus (2009)

Inscribed by Hariharan

A friend of mine had been telling me about this movie for sometime. So I decided yesterday that I would finally see it for whatever its worth. I had no clue as to what it was all about. After seeing the movie I can say that I am so moved and inspired by Madiba (Nelson Mandela is also known as Madiba). What an inspiring person he is!

The movie shows how Nelson Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) used the Rugby World Cup as an event to get the blacks and whites in South Africa together.

I feel that post 1990s if South Africa could avoid the Civil War situation and is where it is today - it is only because of the farsighted vision of Nelson Mandela. Even though in the 1960s Nelson Mandela embarked on violent forms of political struggle (only when all else had failed) … when he came to the position of power, he decided to take the entire nation together. Some of his quotes below,

• “Brothers and sisters, this is the time to build our nation!”
• “The Rainbow Nation starts here. Reconciliation starts here. Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon.”

It’s a beautiful scene where Mandela manages to convince a meeting of the South African Sports Committee not to change the Springboks team, name and colours as he realizes that such an action would instead drive a further wedge between the two races.

Mandela also shares with François Pienaar (Captain of the National Rugby team played by Matt Damon) a poem, Invictus, that had been inspiring to him during his time in prison, helping him to "stand when all he wanted to do was lie down". I share the entire poem here for everyone to be inspired.

Invictus (meaning Unconquerable in Latin)

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.

- William Ernest Henley

At one point in the movie, Francois Pienaar is himself in awe and says “I was thinking how a man could spend thirty years in prison, and come out and forgive the men who did it to him...”

It’s a movie that leaves you with a “wow” factor and inspired. I feel that Madiba has the inspiration and energy of Mahatma Gandhi in him. I get wonderful feeling after seeing this movie in South Africa – guess I was moved more since I was here when I saw the movie.