Another movie Rico would like to see

The Guardian has an article about the new Eastwood movie, Invictus:

Small wonder so many film-makers have been drawn to Nelson Mandela. Few life stories are this immediately inspiring; so full of drama, hardship, and heroism. But films featuring the man tend to end with his release from prison or, perhaps, his election to the presidency. His stint actually ruling South Africa seems, by comparison, less extraordinary or, at least, less obviously prime fodder for the big screen.
Invictus, the brilliant new film from Clint Eastwood, changes that. Its way of examining the man's genius is by taking us backstage on a breathtaking act of leadership in the first year of his tenure: uniting a scarred, fractious country through rugby. Specifically, a shared desire for a Springbok triumph at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was held in the country's capital.
Through rooting for a victory, Invictus shows how Mandela became the real champion. Defensive Afrikaners were won over by Mandela's support for what they saw as their sport, and steadily succumbed to his charm. Mandela's energetic collaboration with the then-team captain Francois Pienaar was a move of remarkable vision and courage.
Invictus came to be after a startlingly fortuitous chain of events. The Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman had long held a dream of playing Mandela, particularly after the president gave his nod of approval to the idea back in the early '90s. Freeman bought up the rights to Mandela's autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom, and hired a series of writers to shape it into a screenplay. But none quite succeeded: how could you cram so much story into one film?
Then a chance encounter with an author named John Carlin, in Clarksdale, Mississippi (the small town where Robert Johnson took a wrong turn at the crossroads, and Bessie Smith met her death in a car crash) gave him the answer. Carlin had penned, with Mandela's enthusiastic blessing, a non-fiction account of the period, entitled Playing the Field. So Freeman snapped up the rights to that too, hired a screenwriter, then, when a draft was complete, showed it to an old friend, who just happened to be a director.
Enter Eastwood. The veteran film-maker had worked with Freeman on Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Freeman rightly felt that he, too, would be captivated by the idea of making a movie about Mandela.
Twenty months later, both were on set in Johannesburg, with a cast and crew predominately made up of locals, and with Matt Damon, who had beefed up to play Pienaar (the actor took rigorous rugby training from Chester Williams, the only black member of the 1995 Springboks team). The actor was onboard the project the moment he read the script. "It's a beautiful, inspiring story," he says, "that shines a light on the best of who we are and what human beings are capable of. And what makes it more incredible is that it really happened."
Damon's tremendous physical transformation and spot-on accent, however, can't obscure the real star of the show. So convinced by Freeman's performance was Mandela's personal assistant that when she stepped on set, she wondered how her boss had made it to the shoot without her. Freeman plays Mandela with all the expected wisdom and fortitude, but it's the twinkle of mischief in his eye that makes you feel you're not just watching the man, rather than a virtuoso impression.
One senses Morgan has been helped in his Oscar-tipped portrayal by the fact that he, too, is a something of a worldwide idol, a man who must view his celebrity as an asset, not a burden. Explains Eastwood, "As an actor, Morgan has the same presence when he walks in the room that Mandela has as a politician. Morgan has a certain bearing and charisma. He was built to play this role."
It's also a perfect fit for the director. After a career focussed on the execution of revenge, from Dirty Harry to last year's Gran Torino, here was a project about a startling lack of vengeance. Not just on Mandela's part, but on that of the black voters who had elected him. We watch as many of the whites in the film brace themselves for payback as Mandela assumes power. A fair number of his supporters wanted it, too. Many believed the entire rugby team was a symbol of apartheid and should be disbanded. Mandela thought otherwise. As he says in Invictus, "The rainbow nation starts here. Reconciliation starts here. Forgiveness starts here."
Says Carlin, "Mandela's genius was to recognise that this symbol of division and hatred could be transformed into a powerful instrument of national unity." Screenwriter Anthony Peckham, a native of South Africa, agrees. "It wasn't just a game; it was the fact that Mandela embraced a team that black South Africans hated and almost by force of will dragged all of the people into following them."
Invictus is a startlingly powerful film: a clear-eyed look a recent history, an awe-inspiring tale of prejudice overcome, a study of power, and a rousing sports movie. As Pienaar says, "I've always maintained that Hollywood could not have imagined a better story than what happened in South Africa in 1995."