Posted on 12/13/2009 1:06:45 PM PST by Publius804
Clint Eastwood’s Invictus: A Colossal Bore
South Africa is plagued with astonishing levels of crime and poverty, its peoples segregated and suspicious of one another. But the new Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus says that’s all okay, because the country’s rugby team won a few games in 1995.
Coming off last winter’s excellent and far more challenging Gran Torino, Invictus is shockingly pedestrian and cliché-ridden. Its level of racial naivety makes it a sort of Driving Mr. Damon, with Morgan Freeman accepting a demotion from his usual roles as God or the president of the United States. This time he merely plays a saint — Nelson Mandela.
Although in one scene we are told that Mandela is a flesh-and-blood human being with family troubles, the rest of the movie shows the man working himself to exhaustion, protesting that he is overpaid, putting himself in physical peril for the sake of his country, forgiving sinners, and generally glowing from the halo over his head. As played by Morgan Freeman with maximum beatitude, he’s one of many reasons why this movie is a colossal bore.
Another is Matt Damon who, as the blond captain of the South African national rugby team the Springboks, is a total blank except that he really wants to win. His team plays so badly in the early stages of the movie that he orders everyone to drink the worst beer he can find — to symbolize the bitter taste of defeat. If putting together a championship-caliber team were that easy, wouldn’t the Detroit Lions simply order in a few cases of Pabst?
Despite Eastwood’s eagerness to portray Mandela as a sort of Jesus with a funny accent....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Mandela’s wife Winnie had a gang that were referred to as her “rugby team.” If someone fell out of favor with Mandela’s opinions she would have her rugby team track down the person and then they would have a rubber tire placed around their waist, splashed with gasoline and lit on fire. The practice was referred to as necklacing. Is this film about the rugby team necklacing?
“Clint , like all of us have issues . Quilt is not one of them .
That’s a bit of a blanket statement, don’t you think?”
You really shouldn’t needle other people on the thread for mere spelling errors. There. That should cover it.
I liked “Changeling,” directed by Clint Eastwood a lot. Angelina Jolie is a wonderful actress. I normally don’t hold political views against actors. If they are talented, I will respect their art.
Matt Damon is the exception, at least for me. His youtube video (which now has almost 7 million hits) is the most watched youtube video on Sarah Palin and quite possibly the most watched video dealing with the 2008 election. He basically rips her apart to shreds and degrades her in the most condescending way possible.
I don’t think his acting is anything to write home about anyway and I will boycott any movie he is in.
**Clint chose to tell the absurd story of the rugby team**
How brilliant is that! The *savior* in this subliminal was a BLONDE white guy.
I get it!!!
Friends of ours have an eight foot concrete wall around their house with razor wire on top of that, with guard dogs and they are in a better neighborhood.
I have friends in SA who live like that too. They also have armed security guards who walk the dogs around. They are professional people, with means, but not overly “WEALTHY”.
Please correct me if i am wrong, but I heard that Bishop desmond Tutu lives in Atlanta GA. Evidently the new SA is not the paradise he expected it to be.
"It ain't like he didn't have it coming."
"We've all got it coming, kid"
...here’s the downward progression of urban areas...it goes from Atlanta to Birmingham to Baltimore to New Orleans/Gary(tie) to Detroit to Cape Town....hmm, wonder if the fact that those cities are governed by ‘progressive’ black politicians has anything to do with it?
Well, that just about covers it.
“I don’t deserve this... to die like this. I was building a house....”
Good point.
aahhhhh YES!!!!
Of course you stand by your statement. I happen to enjoy a good pun, that’s all. Didn’t mean any offense.
The personal attack is uneccesary. Really.
C’mon guys — Bee series....
I find that to be a comfort(er).
Hitchcock supposedly almost exclusively shot what he had already storyboarded. I think Clint works in a similar if slightly more conceptual way.
Sometimes like Bloodwork and maybe Invictus he is working with weak material, and even tinkering won’t help that.
When he works from strong material, why bother shooting other stuff? He also brings in great actors and that allows you to work quick when everyone knows what they are doing.
You guys should stop batting one another like this. The movie isn't about the South African cricket team!
I make typos all the time...so there should be no issue with it..happens to us all.
as far a guilt though...I would be interesting in knowing how you know that Eastwood is not acting on white guilt....(I believe I see it in his work...with “Bird”, “Letters from IwoJima”, “White Hunter, Black Heart” and to a lesser extent in other works... )
Just curious.
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