Hollywood film shows sport healing apartheid's scars but the truth is not so simple
It certainly has a Hollywood ending. South Africans celebrate from townships to townhouses, white policemen hold a black boy aloft, and president Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) blesses the triumphant captain of the Springboks rugby team (Matt Damon).
Freeman will be in Johannesburg for the premiere of Invictus, Clint Eastwood's Oscar-tipped movie telling how Mandela used the power of sport to heal the scars of apartheid and bring black and white South Africans together.
The film shows Mandela embracing the Afrikaners' cherished sport, rugby, as South Africa hosts the world cup in 1995. Whereas previously he and other black people had cheered for the Springboks' opponents, by the end he is wearing their green and gold jersey and rallying black people to the national side.
Audiences could be forgiven for leaving the cinema with the impression that...
It certainly has a Hollywood ending. South Africans celebrate from townships to townhouses, white policemen hold a black boy aloft, and president Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) blesses the triumphant captain of the Springboks rugby team (Matt Damon).
Freeman will be in Johannesburg for the premiere of Invictus, Clint Eastwood's Oscar-tipped movie telling how Mandela used the power of sport to heal the scars of apartheid and bring black and white South Africans together.
The film shows Mandela embracing the Afrikaners' cherished sport, rugby, as South Africa hosts the world cup in 1995. Whereas previously he and other black people had cheered for the Springboks' opponents, by the end he is wearing their green and gold jersey and rallying black people to the national side.
Audiences could be forgiven for leaving the cinema with the impression that...
- 12/7/2009
- by David Smith
- The Guardian - Film News
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