"Invictus"

[eumelia]

I think I'm an idiot sometimes, getting emotional over stories of this kind.

I really like Clint Eastwood as a director, his subject matter(s) and execution of all his films are epic, humane and historical in their own way.

Watching this trailer and having South African roots really struck a cord:

I'm interested in seeing the movie, because the trailer appears to give equal footing to Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, the poster (here) seems to give precedence to Damon making him front and centre, but enlarging Freeman.

Clint Eastwood is really good at portraying problematic racial dynamics... South Africa is an understatement when it comes to that.

Any way, it's going to be an Oscar film. And a Bechdel fail.

I'll report on it when I see it.

Comments

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

They were playing this trailer during the World Series last night. I know very little about football (or soccer, as we say here), but I'm definitely planning on seeing it.

Reading the tagline of the poster, I do believe the "he" refers to Freeman as Mandela.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Rugby... not football.

No doubt the "he" in the poster refers to Mandela, representation wise... I'm curious what the focus is going to be on.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Wow, see, I'm so clueless. LOL at myself. Whatever, even better, more sports that are unpopular on my shores.

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

Too bad Freeman's accent is so shitty :s

I dunno. This looks like every other movie made about South Africa in which white and black characters connecting on an individual level is supposed to be somehow representative of racial harmony. I'd like to see more post-apartheid era, post-Mandela era movies. I love Mandela, everyone loves Mandela, and I've never seen him represented in film before so that is kind of exciting. But I want to talk about South Africa NOW, not the triumphs of the past which ended up being the problems of today.

Maybe I'm just feeling crusty and worn out today. I'll probably still see it.

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

That said, there are some really really great apartheid-era movies out there. But I can only think of a couple off the top of my head(Tsotsi and District 9) that are present-day and for some reason I find that irritating.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen District 9 yet and Tsotsi was amazing.
Regarding your first comment, yes to all of that - the trailer is a bit misleading I think, because Eastwood is way better at showing fucked up dynamics and being critical about them while at the same time being a gripping story teller.
Like Changeling whichI wrote about (http://eumelia.livejournal.com/372425.html) and Grand Torino, which was amazing.