Motivation

“INVICTUS”

•A 2009 film directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

The film is a look at the life of Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South

Africa, during his term as president, when he campaigned to host the 1995

Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen.

•The title comes from the fact that Mandela had the poem written on a scrap of

paper on his prison cell while he was incarcerated. In the movie, Mandela

gives the “Invictus” poem to his national rugby team’s captain Francois

Pienaar before the start of the Rugby World Cup. In reality, Mandela provided

Pienaar with an extract from Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena”

speech from 1910.

Themes in the movie:

Forgiveness, inspiration, social prejudice, racism, statesmanship (not just

politics: an example of black leadership)

This inspiring movie gives us a glimpse of what a great leader Mr. Mandela was,

about forgiving as a initial step for building a new spirit or relation, about how one

man could inspire another, that then inspired a team, and the team inspired a

nation to take a first step into feeling like one...it’s the power of ONE, that we all

have in our hands, if we just have the courage to bring down our mental structures

and social prejudices ....it’s about challenging the odds, it’s about believing in a

cause that is bigger than us...and...oh, yes, and a bit of rugby...

This is a film about a talented politician dealing with a particular difficult moment

in his country. It is always rewarding to understand that there are good politicians,

those that make the difference between statesmanship and common public

servants.

Background

“Invictus” is a short poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–

1903). It was written in 1875 and first published in 1888 in Henley’s Book of

Verses, where it was the fourth in a series of poems entitled Life and Death

(Echoes)

“Invictus” Latin for...