The Film Invictus - Essay Example

The Film Invictus The film Invictus is a sport drama film written in 2009. It was directed by Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman. The storyline of the film is based on the book playing Enemy by John Carlin. It is about Morgan Freeman the then South Africa president and the Game which made the Nation about certain events that took place in South Africa during and before the 1995 Rugby World Cup. This game was hosted in South Africa following the dismantling of apartheid. This paper discuses this film within the context of how inclusive the film is as far as addressing the processes of human socialization, the competing moral orders, as well as the compassionate stories” or narratives enacted by the characters are concerned. Right from the beginning of the film, it is clear that the subject of the process of human socialization as demonstrated in organizations, peers and institutions apparently takes the central role in the film. It is quite evident that the film’s key focus is on apartheid. Apartheid has cut across many every organ of the government right from the institution of the president, institution of justice, institutions responsible for security, as well as other government organization that are key to delivering basic services to the country. The term apartheid was an Africaans that was commonly used to refer to a system of racial segregation that was enforced through the process of legislation by the then South African ruling party (National Party). During this period of time, the rights of the majority black South African Inhabitants were said to have been curtailed while the white supremacy was maintained. In essence, the word served as a policy of segregation, as well as political economic discrimination against those who belonged to groups of non-European in the Republic of South Africa. According to this film, after Morgan Freeman gets leased from Prison and he is elected as the first black president of the South African Republic, he has many challenges following the post-Apartheid era. One thing that is quite striking to him is that to do with human socialization. Human socialization in this case, refers to the racial divisions between the white and black South Africans who are affiliated to movements supporting racial segregation and are the cause of the day to day violence. The ill motive that the whites and the blacks hold towards each other is clearly demonstrated in the president’s security details, where the relations between the prior established white officers, who had provided security to his predecessors and the black ANC additions to the security detail, are not only frosty, but also marked by mutual distrust. More evidently, Morgan Freeman, while attending the game of Springbooks, which is the rugby Union team for the country, recognizes that there were cheers among the blacks against their home’ squad since it was mostly the white Springboks that represented apartheid and prejudice in the African minds. However, Morgan Freeman stands opposed to the apartheid philosophy, and he is out to make sure there is free human socialization. In pursuit for this, the president, when aware that the country is set to host in a year’s time, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, goes ahead to convince a meeting for the newly-black-dominated South African Sports Committee to support the Springboks. The president then goes ahead to meet Springboks rugby teams captain (Francois) Matt Damon. He informs the captain that the victory of Springboks in the World Cup will help bring unit, as well as inspire the nation towards realizing its national goals. Certainly, the efforts of the president are focused towards realizing free human socialization process. He also shares a poem with Francis. According to Morgan Freeman this poem had inspired him. The poem was referred to as invictus. The captain together with his team mates continued with the training. Many residents of South Africa both white and black had doubts concerning the idea that rugby was going to bring unity into the nation that had been split due to racial tension. In respect to the Black, particularly the radicals, supremacy was symbolized by springboks. Despite this, assumptions, Morgan Freeman stood strong behind his theory that rugby could fruitfully bring unity into the country. When the players started to interact with their fans, things began to change as a friendship between the players and their fans began. At the time of opening games, the Springboks support started to grow in the population of black individuals. During the second game, each and every citizen of the country came together in support of Morgan Freeman’s efforts and the Springbok. The security team for Morgan Freeman grew closer when different officers came to respect the dedication and professionalism of their comrades. This made the Springbok satisfy all expectations thus qualifying for the final with a rugby team that was considered as the most successful in the entire world. Before this game, the team of \springbok visited the island of Robben, where Morgan Freeman had spent about twenty seven years locked up in jail. In this case, the captain was inspired by the will of Morgan Freeman and his self-mastery idea in the Invictus poem. The captain had mentioned his amazement that Morgan Freeman had to spend 30 years in a cell that was tiny, and then moved out of the cell ready to forgive those individuals that had locked him in there. With increased support by massive home crowd of different races, the captain has his team motivated. The security details of Morgan Freeman obtained some threats some period before the beginning of the match. Jumbo jets buzzes are realized in the stadium. This was not an act of assimilation but an act of patriotic demonstration. This time, the springbok won the match after some added time. They won with a score of fifteen to twelve with a help of long drop kick out of Joel Stransky the fly half. Matt Damon the captain together with Morgan Freeman met on the field so as to celebrate the unexpected improbable victory. The car of the President was then observed driving in the jammed-traffic streets out of the stadium. When Morgan Freeman watched the celebrations of the South Africans while, in his car, He proceeded with reciting of the poem Invictus. Human socialization, on the other hand, is the method through which individuals obtain belief, values, and patterns of behavior concerning the social group that they belong. This implies that human socialization is the lifelong process of disseminating and inheriting custom idea of human socialization, ideologies, and norms, giving an individual the habit and skills that are pertinent in taking part in activities of his society. It is a method through which moral outcomes are observed. In other cases, view of individuals concerning certain issues like economics or race could be socialized within the society. In this play, there are different instances for which the issue of human socialization is observed. The play gives us an insight towards the degree of apartheid in South Africa. It is also evident that there was some level of racism in the country. When South Africa became an independent country, the politics in the white South Africans was characterized by a division between the pro-republic and the anti-republic. After attaining the status of the republican, the government called for improved relations and accordance between the Afrikaners and the British individuals. The division between these two groups came about due to not only the apartheid stand but also their racial origins. There was an ethnic division between the English speakers and the Afrikaans speakers. Many Afrikaners were in support of the unanimity notion of the white individuals so as to ensure their security. On the other hand, the white individuals, had recognized the relevance of the white unity, and were persuaded by the surging numbers of decolonization in Africa contributed to their being apprehensive. Many English speakers in the country supported apartheid and were disturbed with the Britain ties severing and the royal crown. This problem continued until the rein of Nelson Mandela who is presented in the play as Morgan Freeman. Invictus as a play has a theme that brings about Moral order, as well as Narrative within the society. Narrative involves a communication form that organized the actions of humans and events into an organized whole story in a manner that brings about meaning to the actions and events through specifying their interactive relations towards the whole story. The play narrates how Nelson Mandela fostered unity in his country (South Africa). From this play it was evident that apartheid had speared a massive violence and internal resistance in South Africa. From 1950 many protests and uprisings were met with the abolishing multiparty system and the imprisonment of anti-apartheid leaders. When these unrests spread out and shifted to be more militarized and effective, the state arranged respondents with violence and repression. In 1980s, different reforms that were geared towards apartheid failed to deal with the increasing opposition. In 1994, the elections were won by Nelson Mandela who was the presidential aspirant of the African National congress. The apartheid vestiges continued to define the society and politics of South Africa. Even with its abolishment in the year 1990, the culture was still practiced. This play leads us to a path taken by Nelson Mandela in fighting apartheid in South Africa. It is evidenced from this play that the end of apartheid could be termed as Nelson Mandela’s efforts. Interpreting the term moral as a wrong or right, unjust or just, unworthy or worthy orientation, made through our decisions or rather our preferences existing apart from them, morals, often provide standards through which ones preferences and decisions could be judged. In this play, it is observed that many residents of South Africa both white and black had doubts concerning the idea that rugby was going to bring unity into the nation characterized by being split due to racial tension. In respect to the Black, particularly the radicals, supremacy was symbolized by springboks. Despite this, assumptions, Morgan Freeman stood strong behind his theory that rugby could fruitfully bring unity into the country. On the other hand, order refers to a prevailing arrangement or course of things or establishing a system that may appear to be away from ones control. This implies that in some moral order, action could make sense in different types of moral order. In this film, it is evidenced when Morgan Freeman stood strong behind his theory. On common ground, the type of Moral Order that is inhabited by us does not repulse us and in some cases, we may not like such a moral order despite the fact that they make sense. In this play, Morgan Freeman insisted on unity through rugby. Even though, this unity was going to benefit them, some white and black South Africans still refused to believe in this unity. When the unity came to a reality, all the individuals celebrated the fruits of the unity. If taken from this point of view, moral order is an institutionally and inter-subjectively social structuring that is shared concerning moral systems that are delivered through belief systems and large narratives. The Invitus film is quite a captivating film having different moments, which bring about enormous emotion. For instance, when the white and the black members of the security presidential detail that this was a case of the hard-line ANC Afrikaners and activists cops. Whenever the Demon’s actor (Francois Pienaar) is taken to the cell in which Mandela had been held for the many years, the actor brings out a lot of humor thus making the film be more appealing. The movie displays the real cell having blankets that were thin on the floor. When the cell is considered, one may compared its appearance to one great man who waited for his rendezvous patiently. This film also shows out how a sport like rugby unit people. The movie has a moving and straight forward message that cheers the audience. The presented sport, accurately displays the solid storyline of the movie earning the film a meaningful rating. On the other hand, its historic accuracy, strong message, and entertaining value makes this movie earn a high rating. References. Matt, Damon .Invictus, Up in the Air. 2009. Web Read More