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Thibault Emmery
(PL 111 B1 01) Introduction to Philosophy
Dr. Kroski
Spring 2016
Invictus: The strength of a free spirit
Can a sporting victory contribute to national sentiment? Can and should we use
to foster national unity especially if a country has been torn by four decades of
apartheid? These are the questions that Invictus, the film by Clint Eastwood poses with
accuracy and sharpness.
The first sequence of the film is evocative in this regard. We see, on both sides of a
road, a field of rugby training, gathering of young Whites maintained on a verdant lawn,
and a surface which informs and muddy black youths play football. Then passes a mo-
torcade, which is none other than that which accompanies Nelson Mandela (Morgan
Freeman) home, the day of his release from prison on 11 February 1990 after twenty-
seven years of imprisonment. Acclaimed on his right, looked warily on his left. Logically
suggests that the day he will be in a position to choose their field of election, Mandela
promote football, sport of the poor and his martyred brothers, rather than rugby, raised
by the white community to the rank of pure religion and became for that reason one of
the flashiest symbols of apartheid.
It will not happen. We immediately transporting four years later, when Mandela's inau-
guration as president of South Africa, Invictus tells the story of the battle waged by the
former leader of the ANC for the team national rugby, the Springboks, who are to re-
ceive in 1995 the international elite rugby during the world Cup. Hated by the black pop-
