Watching the Kiwis choke on the big screen was epic
And not a mention of Suzi
Clint Eastwood hates pussies
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Watching the Kiwis choke on the big screen was epic
And not a mention of Suzi
Clint Eastwood hates pussies
it was a good movie!!
Saw it last night. Enjoyed it. Mainly about how Mandela was clever enough to use the opportunity of the Rugby world cup to unite black and white South Africans. Morgan Freeman was very beliveable as Mandela and Matt Damon played Pineaar. He looked like he had bulked up abit to play a rugby player. Of course the Wallabies lost at the quarter finals! That didn't change!
Any actual south africans in the movie?
Insert evil laugh?
Invictus not averse to playing with facts
* by Wayne Smith
* From: The Australian
* January 25, 2010 12:00AM
IT's a bit self-defeating for a critic to point out there is one minor thing wrong about the Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus - that this "true story" about the 1995 Rugby World Cup is actually based on a falsehood.
In the movie, Nelson Mandela, newly elected as president of South Africa after having been imprisoned for 27 years by the apartheid government, presents Springbok captain Francois Pienaar on the eve of the World Cup with a copy of the William Henley poem Invictus that helped sustain him during his long years in jail on Robben Island.
It's true that the poem, best known for its stirring conclusion, "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul", did provide much solace to Mandela on the island. But it wasn't Invictus that he gave to Pienaar just before the tournament. Rather, it was Theodore Roosevelt's The Man in the Arena.
The self-defeating part of all this from the perspective of a nitpicking journalist is that this Roosevelt speech begins by putting smart arses like me in their place: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better," it states. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming."
So, having been shown the error of my fault-finding ways, let's move on to the film itself, a rare Hollywood excursion into rugby.
Invictus is being marketed as one of the most inspiring movies of the year. But if you go along to the cinema expecting to be inspired and you are, but not as much as you thought you would be, does that not make the overall experience mildly deflating?
The key actors are compellingly convincing. Morgan Freeman looks more like Mandela than Mandela himself, while Matt Damon, commendably beefed up to fit the role of a knuckle-dragging Springbok flanker and sensibly underplaying the harsh South African accent, does Pienaar proud.
What's disappointing is that the same care that went into the casting of the two principals wasn't extended to selecting the supporting cast of Springboks. Surely in all of South Africa it cannot have been difficult to find a dozen or so more convincing rugby players.
It is not as though members of the Royal Shakespearean company were needed to handle the theatrical demands placed on the actors playing the Springboks. Basically, all that was required of them was to stand around looking racist. Granted, they handled this to generally good effect.
But while the rugby scenes were well shot and would have given US moviegoers in particular an insight into what football without the body armour is really like, they still did not do justice to the pace, intensity and ferocity of genuine Test rugby.
In one scene in which a Western Samoan defender takes out a Springbok player with a marginally late hit, the tackle is portrayed as fairly hard. In fact, there is nothing fair about ever being tackled by the Samoans. They hit not just to hurt but to rearrange every bone in your body.
What was almost laugh-out-loud funny about the movie was that the Springbok players threw the ball around like the Barbarians. In fact, then, as now, the South Africans kicked like mules and with about as much subtlety. Indeed, the core tactic they employed in their tournament-opening victory over Australia in 1995 was to constantly hoof the ball over the dead-ball line, pinning the Wallabies in their own territory by repeatedly forcing them to drop out from their 22.
By far the most glaring, if understandable, omission from the movie is that no mention is made whatever of the famous All Black claim that they were poisoned by a South African waitress, Suzie, two days before playing the Boks in the World Cup final.
Granted, it's not difficult to understand why Eastwood sidestepped the ongoing controversy of whether Suzie, supposedly bribed by a gambling syndicate, seasoned the New Zealanders' meals with something a little stronger than garlic and thyme.
After all, it's a little tricky to sustain the storyline of an heroic, against-all-odds Springbok victory while also entertaining the notion that South Africa might have nobbled their opponents. Still, I'm not expecting Invictus to be a box office smash hit in NZ.
Yet for all the glaring omissions, there were some glaring inclusions as well for those familiar with the Mandela story. Quite literally so, in one case.
In the scene where Mandela invites Pienaar to tea with him, he motions to the Springbok captain to sit in a particular chair so that he himself does not have to look into the light. Anyone who has read Long Walk to Freedom would recall that for years on Robben Island Mandela was forced to work in the quarry without sunglasses to protect his eyes from the glare of the sun reflecting off the lime.
No reference is made to why Mandela's eyes are so sensitive. The scene isn't laboured in any way by the director. But by liberally sprinkling the movie with such realistic touches, Eastwood goes a long way to building the overall credibility of Invictus.
That's important because the unembellished history of those times border on the incredible. To think that a man imprisoned for so long would not only forgive his Afrikaaner jailers but then actually use their secular religion, rugby - the brutish sport of a brutish people, as one commentator put it - to help unify the Rainbow Nation, strains credulity all on its own, let alone once Hollywood has schmaltzed up the facts. Still, it's hard to get overly excited by any movie that has as its happy ending a Springbok World Cup triumph.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225823043863
Take some solace from visuallising a kiwi mental disintegration on wide angle
As a rugby fan, it is the greatest rugby movie of all time.
The casting went to great lengths to select all players involved to resemble the real men. Even in the snippets of other games it is easy to recognise Tim Horan, John Eales and co
Depends on whether or not you are a one eyed, nit picking journo or a lover of a good story..
Ive never supported the boks, but regardless of the whole food spiking conspiracy the boks HAD to win that world cup...it was their destiny!
---------- Post added at 08:00 ---------- Previous post was at 07:50 ----------
the ones highlights are definitely South African.. there may be others with more "worldly" names that could also be South African though.. I'd be surprised if there were more than 10 cast that werent.
Cast (in credits order)
Morgan Freeman ... Nelson Mandela
Matt Damon ... Francois Pienaar
Tony Kgoroge ... Jason Tshabalala
Patrick Mofokeng ... Linga Moonsamy
Matt Stern ... Hendrick Booyens
Julian Lewis Jones ... Etienne Feyder
Adjoa Andoh ... Brenda Mazibuko
Marguerite Wheatley ... Nerine
Leleti Khumalo ... Mary
Patrick Lyster ... Mr. Pienaar
Penny Downie ... Mrs. Pinnear
Sibongile Nojila ... Eunice
Bonnie Henna ... Zindzi
Shakes Myeko ... Minister of Sport
Louis Minnaar ... Springbok Coach
Danny Keogh ... Rugby President
Dan Robbertse ... Boer
Robin Smith ... Johan De Villiers
David Dukas ... Captain of 747
Grant Swanby ... Co-Captain of 747
Josias Moleele ... Face Painter
Langley Kirkwood ... Presidential Guard
Robert Hobbs ... Presidential Guard
Melusi Yeni ... Presidential Guard
Vuyo Dabula ... Presidential Guard
Daniel Hadebe ... Presidential Guard
Jodi Botha ... High School Boy
Henie Bosman ... High School Coach
Refiloe Mpakanyane ... Jessie
Jakkie Groenewald ... Johannesburg Cop
Murray Todd ... Johannesburg Cop
Japan Mthembu ... Local Cop
Albert Maritz ... Sprinbok Mranage
Sello Motloung ... Mandela's Doctor
Meren Reddy ... Minister of the Environment
Lida Botha ... Mrs. Brits
Susan Danford ... Mrs. Cole
Sylvia Mngxekeza ... Mrs. Dlamini
James Lithgow ... New Zealand PM
Malusi Skenjana ... NSC Firebird
Bart Fouche ... Prison Guard
Johnny Cicco ... Staff Member
Wayne Harrison ... Staff Member
Ashley Taylor ... Team Crew
Gift Leotlela ... Team Crew
Kgosi Mongake ... Sipho
Given Stuurman ... Township Kid
Vuyolwethu Stevens ... Township Kid
Ayabulela Steven ... Township Kid
Nambitha Mpumlwana ... Trophy Wife
Andre Jacobs ... Television Announcer
Scott Eastwood ... South African Springbok
Grant Roberts ... South African Springbok
Mark Bown-Davies ... South African Springbok
Dale Stephen Dunn ... South African Springbok
Graham Lindemann ... Kobus Wiese
Andries Le Grange ... South African Springbok
Clive Richard Samuel ... South African Springbok
Richard Abrahamse ... South African Springbok
Sean Pypers ... South African Springbok
Riaan Wolmarans ... South African Springbok
Ryan Scott ... South African Springbok
Daniel Deon Wessels ... South African Springbok
Vaughn Thompson ... South African Springbok
Charl Engelbrecht ... South African Springbok
Rolf E. Fitschen ... South African Springbok (as Rolf Ernst Fitschen)
Andrew Nel ... South African Springbok
Rudi Zandberg ... South African Springbok
Abraham Vlok ... South African Springbok
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zak Feaunati ... Jonah Lomu
Sean Cameron Michael ... Springbok Equipment Manager (uncredited)
Matthew Dylan Roberts ... Cabinet minister (uncredited)
Patrick Walton Jr. ... Springbok Trainer (uncredited)
I think it would have been great to use some of the original players,maybe with a bit of hair dye and other special hollywood effects to make them look younger,then they could have used some of the real footage for the final.
The actors they used werent real convincing looking players,nor were the rugby games scenes.
Or at least they could have used the real jonah since he is still running around.
I agree that it will never be a smash hit in nz, but then they are a fanatical rugby nation, and it has been 15 years now.
Really enjoyed the insight into mandela the man, he is very clever.The movie has only increased my respect for him.
"IT's a bit self-defeating for a critic to point out there is one minor thing wrong about the Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus - that this "true story" about the 1995 Rugby World Cup is actually based on a falsehood."
Sounds like some of Waynes own work.
"I'd be surprised if there were more than 10 cast that werent."
Not Zims claimed by South Africans until they can be replaced Zimeric :P ;)
"I agree that it will never be a smash hit in nz, but then they are a fanatical rugby nation, and it has been 15 years now."
Two words Cookie, "Trevor Chappell" ;)
to be honest, from the ads on telly, damon looks more like that Juan smit person
Invictus was good to watch but was not the rugby movie i was hoping for.