South Africa after Mandela's Release

One wonders how Clint could be doing the films he does based on the fact that he is betterknown as a no-nonsense actor of many westerns, in films like The Good The Bad and The Ugly by Sergio Leone.But here he is many years later dealing with difficult topics like a child kidnapping with Angelina Joli and now a film, Invictus which shows South Africa reforming after Mandela's prison release.
Here is a golden globe award winner film, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon; the story of Nelson Mandela taken from the perspective of his attempt to reunite the country.It goes into the mind of the man as he recites the poem that gave him a sense of purpose and transports you across rugby playing fields as the country gears itself for recognition in the political sphere.
I wonder too how much of Morgan's monologues came from him originally but no matter,I take it that he must have been inspired enough to be as conciliatory as his lines portrayed him to be.He had to face his peers who challenged his pacifist ways in not excluding the Africkaner security people who guarded the previous President and he had more than enough savvy to keep some of the former cabinet members too.
One would have liked to see more of his personal dilemma. The absense of his wife of so many years and a daughter who could not see how her dad would obtain political unity through sport, made him a lonely man. That loneliness was effectively shown when he wanted to see his daughter once and she turned him down and then when they were together she commented on how her mother did not want to have reminders from Mandela, in the form of rosary bead bracelet.
The film is not drowned in politics, instead it takes a youthful approach in showing how Mandela would deal with other nations and keep rugby in the back of his mind. And the final showdown with a New Zealand team combines rugby playing with the notion that South Africa wanted to be accepted as a reformed country. That was Mandelas dream come true.

Being Unwelcomed

I don’t know how they got there, they must have walked all the way or hid under trucks that crushed them whenever bumps were hit. It did not matter to the hosting nation that they would all huddle at soup kitchens on the Calais coast yet there was not to be any contact with the locals. If you were caught abetting these immigrants you could be sent to prison and if they swam across the Channel and drowned, they would be sent back anyway. Their soaked bodies would be useless across the sea.

The story is quite believable, there have been issues with people wanting to get across the channel just like that and the acting is quite realistic. Aside from a couple of slight editing glitches, like one where you see the French gold medal winner picking up the Kurd boy at the soup kitchen all of a sudden. One supposes he must have seen him waiting in line for food, as before, only the public likes to be reassured of a certain sequencing of events in the editing process.

I was not clear of how the police obtained the gold medal from the dead body of the boy; maybe there was a mention that it was found with his mate that accompanied him to the house of the swimming instructor. The two Kurds were hosted at this instructor’s house against the will of the authorities who questioned the man on several occasions; that was the backdrop to creating the necessary tension in the plot as one wondered whether the boy would get sufficient training before his host would be caught. Bilal, the boy never made it and his girl had to marry someone else her successful father chose, the life of the girl and her dad was the subplot in the picture. Naturally she was brokenhearted to learn of her lover’s demise in his effort to reach her.

Being Up in the Air

Imagine you have been working for a company for years and now have to get laid off by a fourth grader as someone put it in the film. The young lady was not so young as to be in primary school but her character could have been classed as such for her to be a naive as she was about adult relationships that exist today. Then she was just out of school and very hopeful as are so many of them when they get their first careers. Only that career was unusual for someone just starting off. It had to do with her wanting work at firing people for other companies. America is downsizing again!

What can I learn from the film about social trends? That a single guy might think he has all the cards in his hands about picking up a woman when he wants and finds out that if she is only looking for pleasure and there are no bonds, then nothing should be expected. But that is the life choice of the main fictional character in the office suit running to awareness meetings, so that he can prepare his agents on how to fire. His personal life remains up in the air and nothing is ever set in stone but it must get pretty lonely whenever he gets the urge to date as couples regularly do.

George Clooney played well in his role as a believable firing agent who asked people to open themselves up after years of working in one company. He acted alongside a younger woman fresh out of college who had her hopes set up for meeting the right man and that failed miserably. Good contrast between her squeaky-clean persona and George’s. Good believable romanticizing on the side as even George is fooled into what he would never have wanted: a committed relationship.

The relationships are somewhat flighty just as the trips between the cities that the actors took along the way but that is how it is now when one can’t even be sure that you can hold a job even firing people!

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