{"id":5246,"date":"2017-01-02T14:25:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T19:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5246"},"modified":"2023-12-28T18:21:40","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T23:21:40","slug":"invictus-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=5246","title":{"rendered":"Invictus-2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Invictus-2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Clint Eastwood<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #579<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed January 2, 2017<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

As sports films go, it is very difficult, especially a sports film based on real-life actions, for a director to avoid cliches and make the film not a sappy, saturated mess.<\/p>\n

I will point out some of the latter-day Rocky films as examples of cheese, not that those are true stories.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Clint Eastwood has given us Invictus, and while the film is predictable and sappy, somehow it also works as an above-average offering.<\/p>\n

This is undoubtedly helped by the superior acting of stars Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, who give both compelling and nuanced performances.<\/p>\n

While not a masterpiece, for the sports genre, it is above average, as it combines a South African history lesson along with good drama.<\/p>\n

Freeman portrays the famed Nelson Mandela, during the period when he took over as President and subsequently ended apartheid. He used the 1995 World Cup rugby matches as a way to unite his people.<\/p>\n

Damon stars as a key rugby player.<\/p>\n

Invictus is a rousing, triumphant sports film with a happy ending one can see for miles away. There is particularly a rooting value and rallying cry to the film since the subject matter is an important social issue and historically significant.<\/p>\n

I wish that the film might have contained more character-driven elements, but it was clear the type of film that it was. Nothing very surprising ever developed as the film was straightforward.<\/p>\n

Still, a worthy effort that is a feel-good film.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Actor-Morgan Freeman, Best Supporting Actor-Matt Damon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Invictus-2009 Director Clint Eastwood Starring Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman Scott’s Review #579 Reviewed January 2, 2017 Grade: B As sports films go, it is very difficult, especially a sports film based on real-life actions, for a director to avoid cliches and make the film not a sappy, saturated mess. I will point out some of … Continue reading Invictus-2009<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308,158,764,192,2022,1790,209],"tags":[309,159,765,193,2028,1792,210],"class_list":["post-5246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2009-movie-reviews","category-bios","category-clint-eastwood","category-dramas","category-matt-damon","category-morgan-freeman","category-sports-films","tag-2009-movie-reviews","tag-biographies","tag-clint-eastwood","tag-dramas-2","tag-matt-damon","tag-morgan-freeman","tag-sports-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5246"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19731,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5246\/revisions\/19731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}