INVICTUS is A MUST SEE!!

     I think sports movie are overrated nevertheless I went to watch Invictus. If you haven't seen it, please do!! It's probably one of the most inspiring sports movie [after "Remember the Titans"] I've ever watched. The director, Clint Eastwood (I hope he wins the best director Oscar this year), did an astounding job with the camera capturing the last ten minutes of the grand finale. A slow motion picture that depicts every single emotion not only of the different actors face but of you, the movie watcher, down to the heartbeat. Well this post is not about putting into lights all those details, I'll leave that to the critics. There are two things that captivated me in this movie, aside Matt Damon guns that were half revealed when he was in the locker room [a reminder of beautiful sculpture well in displayed in the Bourne Trilogy], discipline and more importantly forgiveness.
     Here is a team who is motivated to win, they put themselves under a strict regiment, they work out, they run, they train. They celebrate their victory after they qualify themselves to semi-finale, they sing, they drink, they shout but yet they go running the next day at 6am. I've always been fascinated by such determination to achieve and rigorous assiduity, maybe because I lack some [especially the latter].
     And there is a guy, an ex-con who after 27 years spent behind bars, comes out and becomes the first democratic President, the great leader of the nation of South Africa after the abolition of Apartheid. His purpose is to transcend race and reunite the people of his country under one Flag, one anthem. He can't do it without truly forgiving the very people who tore his family apart by dragging him and his wife out their home, and threw him in jail, the same people who would not hesitate to torture, insult, terrorize, or lynch any person of color on any ground, the people who gave him for all and all a thin mat where he would rest during his 27 years in prison, breaking bricks at day and breaking his back at night. He had to go above and beyond, to reach out over the anger, the pain and  humiliation he endured in his mind and body for the sake of 43 million souls he felt responsible for. He had to grant pardon, not only with his lips but with mind and heart to reconcile both sides, both races. Madiba [that was his clan name and that's how he was called by his close friends], betrayed and abandoned by his wife, estranged from his children, was misunderstood but he had a goal and a resoluteness in his heart. At one point in time, feeling the rage of his people against the national rugby team which depicts the old South Africa, he tells them: "you chose me as your leader, now let me lead you", in a handwritten letter he tells the captain of the Springboks in the words of  Henley William Ernest: "I'm the master of my fate, I'm the captain of my soul.", in a tv interview nagged by the sports anchorman about his support for any team against the Springboks, he says: "In times of change, a leader must change", thus outlining that his position has changed. His attitude and the embodiment of his personality inspired the South African National Rugby team and they won the rugby world cup.
     I still think sports movie are overrated but INVICTUS is one of a kind and one thing is undeniable about Sports, just like music, it breaks barriers and brings people together.
     Thus said, can someone say: WORLD CUP 2010 SOUTH AFRICA HERE I COOOMMMMME!!!