Invictus

Damn, Clint, you shouldn’t have done this! Invictus gave me the impression that after his brilliant, distinctive and politically incorrect Gran Torino was ignored by the Academy, the director got mad and went for the polar opposite: a glossy, pathetic and bland drama. It might succeed at the Oscars, but it will disappoint fans. Everybody smiles and hugs each other, Mandela either waves his hand at the masses or shares morsels of wisdom. An incredibly predictable, uninteresting and forgettable movie. Just like last year I hoped Gran Torino would get an Oscar, this year I hope this cynical movie will end in the dustbin of history. Three stars for those things that are well made, but thumbs down otherwise. (27/12/2009)

A film with way too much pathos, in which are raging the invisible hand of the screenwriter fate and, unfortunately, very simplistic and flat solutions to key scenes. It's funny how rugby looks like puppet theatre. Anyway, my love for this hooligan sport, played by gentlemen, and also the respect for the performances of both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, made it a bearable experience. It's a political-social fairy tale. But I'm worried that this is more of the dark side of Clint's simple style of direction. (30/10/2011)

I’m as interested in Rugby as I am in South Africa, sports dramas aren’t usually my cup of tea, but still Clint enthralled me anyway. In fact it brought back memories about a different year and a different sport. Morgan Freeman is excellent (if only all presidents radiated such calm and confidence), Matt Damon is ripped like never before. Really well done. (02/10/2010)

You expect a more thoughtful Any Given Sunday and instead you get a brilliantly portrayed Nelson Mandela and a couple of rugby montages with a rather oddly cast Matt Damon. There's no denying that Eastwood is once again an old-worldly lovable grouch, this time only behind the camera, and he holds the directorial reins very tightly, almost to the point of gripping them. The story of the two main characters is well woven and not intertwined with unnecessary lines, but it's rather uninteresting. The sociopolitical subtext is clearly visible and probably, together with Morgan Freeman, the most impressive. Too bad it's full of pathos towards the end and sort of fizzles out into nothingness. And yet, there are a number of characters with good potential that was hardly exploited, for example, the bodyguards, the families, the members of rival teams, etc. It’s not that bad, but Clint didn’t pick a good topic. (10/08/2017)

A tremendous film that can be described as flawless without any hesitation. Eastwood's old-school direction (he did rugby in a completely different way than how Oliver Stone did American football in Any Given Sunday, but it's breathtaking all the same), a perfect Freeman, Damon (say what you will) and others, subtle and typical of the director's humor (provided by Mandela's black and white bodyguards), and more and more perfect moments as the end approaches (Pienaar in Mandela's cell, the plane, the bodyguards playing, watching or listening to the match broadcast wherever and with whomever you can...), which together form a great message of forgiveness, peace, friendship... And other things. Five stars. (21/10/2011)

Clint Eastwood is for me one of the most interesting directors, and he managed to deliver even a film that could be very pathetic and overly sentimental with the necessary dose of pathos, but in such a way that there are no tacky and stupid scenes. Yet this story about sports and politics sounds so unlikely... But it works and you believe it. All the more so because it's true. (12/04/2017)