Invictus invites scepticism for outsourcing its cast
Aug 8th, 2009 | Category: OpinionSouth African films have been outsourced before. MEGAN TENNANT looks past her scepticism to discover how Invictus is different to the rest
Rumours were afoot in March this year. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names were said to be in Cape Town. Damon was seen spinning round Chapman’s Peak in scanty cycling gear; Eastwood was spied fraternising in a restaurant in Bantry Bay. But it was the letters that appeared in the mailboxes of local residents that confirmed the excited murmurs: “Untitled Mandela Project”, they stated. “Please make sure all post ’95 cars are off the roads we film…”
The “Untitled Mandela Project” is is due to hit the big screen in December. The film is based on a book by John Carlin called Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and The Game that Made a Nation. Carlin was a correspondent with The Independent Newspaper in the transition years and liaised considerably with Mandela during that time. Though apartheid had been abolished and a new president reigned, South Africa was still divided, and Carlin makes a point that in Mandela’s first year of presidency, a stable democracy was still very much an ideal to be worked towards. He documents how Mandela used rugby to win the enthusiasm of the Afrikaners and to stir patriotism in the hearts of black people, and of how South Africa’s victory at the 1995 World Cup transcended ‘sport’ status and became a catalyst to leading a united country into the future.
Considering the upcoming film is based on such deeply South African events, it’s most strange that its filming has been entrusted to to an American. After all, US sportsmen find it difficult to catch anything softer than a cricket ball without a mitt, and tackle each other wearing shoulder pads and pedal pushers. That the filming crew has never experienced the intricacies of post-apartheid South Africa is something else entirely. The question begs, then, is this going to be another one of Hollywood’s colonial conquests, something along the lines of ‘Drum’ and ‘Red Dust’?
It’s difficult not to be sceptical. It’s difficult not to yearn for locals to play our heroes and tell our stories. But perhaps such sacrifices permit greater things to be achieved. The movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, is already dubbed to be an Oscar contender. And apparently Eastwood is a fan of rugby himself, having sponsored the sport during his term as mayor of Carmel (where that is, is irrelevant). And it seems that ‘colonisation’ may work both ways, with hopes that the expected publicity will make the sport more popular in America. Morgan Freeman, who has been responsible for initiating the project, is finally realising his life-long dream of playing his hero – Madiba. He may not be South African, but there’s no reason his reverence for Nelson Mandela can’t transcend cultural and national boundaries. There’s no denying that Americans are telling our story, but it’s a South African story, nevertheless, and it’s being exposed to the world.
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Megan Tennant is a BA student majoring in English Literature and Film & Media Studies
As a South African and strong Springbok supporter, I thought that this movie was absolutely brilliant. Having been there for the actual game back in 1995 was something really special too. Check out the Invictus Facebook page where you can tag yourself in images of the 1995 World Cup finale if you were there: http://bit.ly/invictusrugby