Sammy Warshaw ’12
Staff Writer

Over the past decade, Clint Eastwood has made one absorbing drama after another. Whether it was war movies, sports movies, or cop movies, Eastwood at 79 proves to be way beyond his years.

Adapted from the novel “Playing the Enemy,” a true story written by John Carlin, Eastwood takes the story of South African president Nelson Mandela and his attempt to build his broken nation through a rugby team.

Eastwood adapts the book wonderfully, taking a melodramatic storyline and turning it into movie heaven. Eastwood manages to take every single cliché of sports movies out of the equation by creating authentic characters and a believable script.

Morgan Freeman plays Mandela, arguably the greatest performance of his career. Freeman manages to capture subtleties and details of Mandela’s character in ways I didn’t think were possible. I can’t think of any other leading male performance this year that conquered such a tough role with such ease. With a less believable Mandela, the interest in the storyline would have lessened greatly. Oscar, take note.

Mandela believes that if his rugby team could win the world cup, the overall morale of his country would improve greatly. The problem is that the rugby team needs help. Led by their captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the South African Springboks seem to have no desire to win. Damon is excellent as Pienaar, giving the audiences a character to cheer for.

A few weeks ago, the film “The Blind Side” was released, displaying exactly how not to handle a true sports story. Eastwood film shows it is possible to make a sports film that actually inspires people, not just cause an audience to cry. People who still think that “The Blind Side” was a rousing film after seeing “Invictus” need to get their movie IQ checked out.