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Themes in Invictus
1. The nature of leadership
-philosophy of leadership underpins much of the action
-a.we see Mandela starting as he means to go on in his welcoming of all previous presidential staff and his desire for them to continue
“All I ask is that you do your work to the best of your abilities and with good heart. I promise to do the same. If we can manage that, our country will be a shining light to the world.”
-it is clear with the inclusion of former security forces in his body guard that he means for his public face to be that of a ‘rainbow nation”
-although Jason is very angry and we see both the whites and the blacks resisting, they eventually come to an amicable working relationship which models the nation that Mandela is hoping to build
-b. strategic –we see that in the 27 years of imprisonment, he has studied the Afrikaners –their language, their love of rugby and knows that to succeed in building a new country he must get their “buy in”
-use of dialogue shows his long term dreams and strategy which he explains to the NCS. “I studied them, I learned their books, their poetry. I had to know my enemy before we could prevail against them and prevail we did. Our enemy is not the Afrikaners, they are our fellow South AFRICANS, OUR PARTNERS IN DEMOCARCY AND THEY TREASURE Springbok rugby. If we take that away, we lose them …we have to surprise them with compassion, restraint and dignity.”
-says in response to Brenda’s query of using rugby as a “political calculation” that it is “a human calculation”
-notes blacks cheering for England in a rugby test and whites cheering for Springboks, which exemplifies the division in the country
-with SA hosting the World Cup, there is much potential for both national pride and an international showcasing of a new nation which could generate investment and business confidence
-takes responsibility to act alone, without the cabinet or sports minister to urge the National Council of Sport not to abandon the Springbok colours, emblem and name. He backs himself to appeal to their sense of nationhood and see the bigger picture. He says also to the NCS “This is the time to build our nation using every brick available to us even if that brick comes wrapped in green and gold. Let me lead you now
c. leads by example
-see character notes about his personal relationships with his staff, including Brenda and Mrs Brits both political and domestic, his guards and getting to know the springbok team
- in his conversation with Pienaar, he agrees with the Springbok captain that this is important but goes on to speak about the importance of inspiration too.
d. importance of inspiration
Mandela also asks “ How to get them to be better than they think they can be? That is very difficult. How do we inpire ourselves to greatness when nothing else will do? I sometimes think it is using the words of others.
When referring to the Victorian poem he says the words “ helped me to stand when all I wanted to do was to lie down”
Likewise at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 when he heard the black national anthem “ it allowed me to expect more of myself. We need inspiration. In order to build our nation we must all exceed our expectations”
-NB he becomes Pienaar’s and the team’s inspiration when they visit Robben Island and see what he endured for 27 years. Then they were able to use his personal example as their own inspiration as he did the miraculous and forgave his captors.
2. The importance of sport to nation building
See Herald on Sunday article 07.08.2010
-see above notes too –Mandela has seen the importance of Springboks to Afrikaners while in prison
-in apartheid times the Springboks were the symbol of oppression and white supremacy
-we see the division between the races in the beginning sequence where the white boys are playing rugby; the blacks –football
-this attitude is mirrored by the black bodyguards who do not know the rules and dislike even going to the stadium
-the NSC is only just persuaded to retain the Springbok brand and Mandela does a surprising thing, reaching out to the white community in his support
-the first rugby supporter we see calls him a terrorist and thinks that the country has ‘gone to the dogs”
-the boy offered a Springbok jersey runs away without it to avoid getting beaten up by his peers
So we can see how rugby is a symbol for the country- when the Boks are doing poorly at the beginning, there is much doubt about whether Mandela can rule
-as Mandela builds up a rapport with Francois Pienaar, so does a growth of understanding occur with the guards.
-philosophy of leadership, both by example and through inspiration so people go beyond themselves and their expectations, spoken about in their conversations which imply the national importance of the game and the link between sport and politics
Pienaar understands the responsibility he has to help forge a united country by him and his team doing something miraculous
-later he goes with his team, to Robben Island and sees first hand what Mandela went through and hears in his mind the inspirational words of Invictus, which he can now fully understand and apply.
-the whites explain the rules of the game, in Mandela’s house they play rugby outside.
-as the wins occur, there are crowd scenes of blacks and whites cheering, the maid is given a ticket to the final
-montages during the final, show the various locations of supporters ranging from the stands, outside the park, Zuki’s liquor store, street scene with the boy and security guards
-Pienaar acknowledges “This is it. This is our destiny.”
-the sound track “the world in union” played after the victory, makes the link between the rugby and unity of the new ‘rainbow nation”
-Pienaar acknowledges “we had the support of 43 million South Africans.”
They both thank the other for what he has done and respect the enormous contribution of the other
Mandela hands Pienaar the William Ellis trophy and in the low angle shot of it held aloft we see a white and black arm together
3. Forgiveness and Reconciliation
-seen as the only way forward to avoid the situation of violence and dictatorship in Zimbabwe feared by the whites
-Mandela makes this his plan as soon as he is inaugurated “Forgiveness starts here. Reconciliation starts here.”
-we see this exemplified in the staff situation, guards, springboks, Pienaar –these situations are models and metaphors for the unity we see at the end in the closing sequences
-requires special will and foresight like the proverb “to err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Eg
Both sides make changes
Montage during final credits also relates back to the beginning
-ls of black boys now playing rugby
-no fences, no barriers, no divide between rich and poor, black and white, conditions improved –green grass and development in background
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