Comments on: Invictus

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By: Outlaw Vern

Outlaw Vern — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:25:32 +0000

To answer your question, I don’t know a god damn thing about rugby, so I guess I would have to say that I am “among the 99.9 per cent of the movie’s viewers Eastwood knew would be so clueless about it that he could distort the story any way he wanted.” If those are the only two choices.

You make some interesting points, Richard, but I have to ask: who’s your favorite rugby team?

By: Richard Wilson

Richard Wilson — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:28:02 +0000

Do you actually know anything about rugby or are you among the 99.9 per cent of the movie’s viewers Eastwood knew would be so clueless about it that he could distort the story any way he wanted? This is total Hollywood BS. It’s a feel-good con. Eastwood’s played fast and loose with the facts both on and off the sports field. No mention of the fact most of the ABs were hit by a virus the day before the final, with some of them vomiting on the field and obviously too sick to be on the field. No mention that France clearly scored a late try against SA in the semis which would have knocked the Springboks out of the competition — except that the Welsh referee inexplicably ruled the try out. Also no mention of the fact that the SA rugby president later gave the same referee a mega-expensive gold watch for his kindness. Hmmm funny that, and also funny that Eastwood omitted it from tale. The movie is presented as an uplifting story of hope for the future but to justify that approach SA would have needed to go on to become a truly unified land in the years since that rugby final. So what’s it like in ‘the rainbow nation’ 15 years on? The country is one of the most corrupt in the world, has the highest incidence of HIV in the world and is also a leader in both child and baby rape and seriously violent crime. The middle-class whites live in their own razor wire-enclosed high-security enclaves, while many of the black people continue to live a BELOW dirt-poor existence in appalling shacks, with neither jobs nor hope. More than a million whites have fled abroad rather than live in a land where the (black) majority rules. These are facts, not concocted fantasy as in so much of this movie whose message of hope is a sham and a fraud because it has never come close to being realised. Don’t leave the theaters with sprits uplifted after watching this because it’s just a sugar-coated Hollywood fairytale which bears little resemblance to the true story.

By: RRA

RRA — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:04:52 +0000

Gwai Lo – Some of your criticisms could be used for most Eastwood movies, no?

He’s never been a flashy auteur. Simple, to the point (maybe too on the nose for some), and no bullshit. He really is Sam Fuller’s successor in that aspect.

Hell remember HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER? Not exactly subtle in telling us the real deal behind this stranger fellow.

GRAN TORINO at heart is a western, and thats why it works. Hell you could remake that script in the Old West, just change settings, technology, and ethnicities. Liberals and NeoCons both miss the fucking point of the movie. Ole Wally is a racist asshole, but certainly he displayed a basic decent humanity underneath that exterior of anger at the world, his family, and most of all himself. It doesn’t expunge or redeem his views, and I like that. This shit aint CRASH.

As for INVICTUS, finally got around to seeing it…and it was a solid respectable film. I think to repeat what others already said, Eastwood I suppose got the urge to tell a genuinely feel-good story of possibility and change for the better. I mean why else would the conservative/libertarian Eastwood work with the outspoken liberal* Damon?

Reminded too of VICTORY, that football movie virtual remake of GREAT ESCAPE made by John Huston, fellow no bullshit fellow and cited hero of Eastwood. Like INVICTUS, not one of Huston’s better pictures but it works simultaneously on the two thematic filmatic goals he was gunning for.

*=Remember Damon’s (humorous) ranting about Palin? Compare that to Eastwood shocking an audience around that same time by saying he was a fan of hers. I bet political discussions get awkward on the set, but not enough I guess since Damon got casted for Clint’s ghost movie.

By: Hugh K. David

Hugh K. David — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:13:29 +0000

Allow me to say that Cedar Room is right on the money, but that’s exactly why the trailer (the film isn’t out here yet in the UK until next month) alone brought me to tears. I’m South African Indian, born there but raised overseas as my parents had to flee the country in 1971 after being threatened by BOSS, the security thugs – my dad’s an Anglican priest who was both anti-apartheid and pro-trade-union, and he preached in favour of both and against the regime. My entire life has taken place overseas away from the majority of my extended family, all of whom I love when I get to meet them (my dad was banned from entry until the 90s), but with whom I realistically don’t have much in common. I’ve seen people work themselves to the bone, both in SA and in Europe, to bring about the kind of change Mandela instigated, and for everything that has not worked since then and still doesn’t work now (the health system, corruption, remaining white/black/Indian/Coloured issues with the older generations), the giant leaps he took to make things progress, even slowly, at other levels in society – how does a man who suffered so much have the magnanimity to do that himself? I’ve been a Freeman fan since Glory, but god he’s coasted for a decade or so now, so I cannot wait to see him take this on. Clint? I’ve been a fan since I can remember, and how he wants to tell this story is fine by me, especially if he’s making it a parable for the US now. I’m excited to see it, even when it hurts to know how far SA has come and still not quite got there, because if anyone can mythologise the harsh realities we all lived through, residents and ex-patriates alike, it’s the man who is a legend in his own lifetime, and has redefined more than one cinematic genre to boot.

By: Mr. Subtlety

Mr. Subtlety — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:13:54 +0000

Wolfie — while Walt is obvious a complicated character who is well aware of the way his use of racial slurs etc affects other people, I’m not sure I would say the movie has nothing to do with race. The structure continually puts him in situations which complicate racial relationships and a the very least deepen his understanding of other races/cultures/people. I think the movie presents him as a guy who probably doesn’t think of himself as a racist (a you say, he uses his racial language to tweak people the same way he does with everyone in his life) but probably is a little more xeophobic or at least indulgent in stereotypes than he’d like to imagine. Hence, the movie is to some degree about him learning a little more about other races etc. Not that that’s a bad thing, and you’re probably right that it gets perhaps and unwarrented amount of attention, but I think its an inescapable fact of the story.

RRA – well, I don’t want to harp on poor GRAN TORINO too much, but I just felt the story was a pretty by-the-numbes melodrama with some spots of weak writing (some of which Gwai Lo eloquently points out, above). If it didn’t have Clint at its center, I can’t imagine I’d possibly be interested based on the screenplay. As it is, it struck me as a grea performance in search of a more interesting story. But I’m glad to know you and a bunch of other folks liked it — as long as the guy keep making movies, I’ll watch ‘em. I bet he’s got one more real home run in him.

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:57:40 +0000

I was actually always surprised at how much reviewers dwelled on the racist words and remarks in Gran Torino. To me it became pretty clear pretty early on that this character would just use whatever he could to poke at you and it was just a test to see if you’d react. If you were a different race he’d say racist things, if you were younger he’d treat you like a stupid kid, etc. These types of guys just want to see if you’re thick-skinned.

I sorta thought everybody had known a couple of guys like this in their lives but the way people talk about this movie, I guess not. This guy wasn’t a racist and I don’t consider it a movie about learning to not be a racist.

By: Dan Prestwich

Dan Prestwich — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:33:09 +0000

Chopper,

That’s more my take on the scene with the black kids, too. But, although I don’t agree, I think I see Gwai’s point. Attempted rape or not, it’s still yet another depiction of young black males as threatening criminal types. My guess is Gwai’s question to Eastwood would be, why did you cast black teens? Why not a bunch of white kids or something?

And of course, I would answer that according to wikipedia, that area’s population is overwhelmingly black, so it makes sense. Also it fits in with the film’s tension when races mix motif, i.e. Walt may not have acted in such an intense fashion if it had been a group of asians or whites bothering Soo.

Still, I can understand why someone might not be cool with the kids’ depiction.