Film Review of Invictus

1. Who is your favorite character from the film?

Although, I do not like this film because it is way too whitewashed and Hollywood, I do have to admit that I love Morgan Freeman's interpretation of Nelson Mandela. He even made himself look similar to him (especially the hair). Did you know that when Nelson Mandela died that people that it was Morgan Freeman who died and he had to tell people that in Twitter?

2.  How does this film compare to all the other films we have seen in class?

This film is definitely the most whitewashed film, it is actually ridiculous and makes me angry to watch it. It is way too happy and positive and plus makes Francois Pienaar the great white savior who saved South Africa from racism because they played rugby. There was no criticism whatsoever in the film, it played up the myth of the great rainbow nation with no economic inequality and that the problem was that blacks and white just didn't like each other until Nelson Mandela said no more violence. Thanks to the other films we know that the end of the apartheid was not 100% happy ending and that people are very critical of the postapartheid promises.


3. Would you considered this film a educative film and would you recommend it to someone? Why/Why Not?

I would say this film is only educative if you want to know the history of rugby in South Africa, but that's it. It's a white person film made by white people for white people. I mean, they talk about how racism was ending in South Africa, but literally you have one black player on the NATIONAL rugby team!

Honestly, I would only recommend this film in the case of our course because it is good to provoke emotions and to compare it to the other films we have seen. Other than that, we have Catch a Fire, Cry Freedom, The Bang Bang Club, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom to really learn about the apartheid through film :)