Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Tony Kgoroge
Rating: PG-13

Morgan Freeman stars as Nelson Mandela in Invictus. (Courtesy photo)

How is it that Clint Eastwood can lure huge audiences to middling, commercially offbeat films, but somehow his best films get lost in the shuffle? Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Turino all drew huge crowds. But few showed up for the far superior Letters from Iwo Jima. Even more surprising is the fate thus far of Invictus. Based on the true story of the South African rugby team making the world cup finals in 1995, Invictus is even more sentimental and unabashedly crowd-pleasing than Gran Turino. As he did in that film, Eastwood commits completely to the realism of his setting, but makes his story almost absurdly neat and tidy. Thanks to the authenticity and stellar performances from Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, Invictus turns out to be one of the most purely entertaining films of the year.

As the leader of post-apartheid South Africa, Nelson Mandela (Freeman) is faced with seemingly endless and insurmountable challenges. So his aides are concerned when he takes serious interest in the South African rugby team, the Springboks. Led by captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the nearly all-Afrikaner team has long been a symbol of apartheid at its worst. Yet Mandela determines to not only keep the team name, but also to elevate the under-performing squad to world champion status. Mandela enlists Pienaar to “exceed his own expectations” and inspire the team to represent its entire country. Whether it’s the leader’s overpowering presence or the good fortune of Pienaar’s open mind, the two make a powerful team. To the surprise of everyone, the Springboks improve dramatically, reach out to the people, and are embraced by the whole of South Africa—all the way to the Rugby World Cup final game.

Yes, there are a lot of speeches in Invictus, but they’re all pretty stirring. And yes, in spite of a brief effort to show Mandela as a flawed man separated from his wife and children, he still comes off as saintly. But then again, he is quite a guy, and his personal shortcomings aren’t terribly relevant to this story. Pienaar accepts his role with barely a pause, and the team makes ridiculous strides in a very short span of time, falling squarely in the category of not being believable, if it weren’t true. But it is true, and Anthony Peckham’s adaptation of the John Carlin novel Playing the Enemy gives us just enough reminders of the messy part of the events to make us happy to get back to the rugby.

Matt Damon is a South African rugby player in Invictus.(Courtesy photo)

Rugby, it turns out, isn’t the most cinematically compelling sport. There isn’t the kind of room for individual heroics that baseball and football provide. And let’s face it, few Americans know how to play. It turns out that matters a little, but not a lot. Even if you know almost nothing about the sport, as is the case for me, it isn’t hard to follow. More importantly, most viewers should be far too caught up in the bigger-than-a-game excitement to sweat it. Eastwood follows the Hoosiers model in shooting the rugby matches—lots of gritty body crunching and heaps of heroic slow motion. It works just fine.

Eastwood is renowned—notorious?—for making his films on time and under budget. Mixed within thoughtfully art-directed films—Bridges of Madison County, Flags of Our Fathers—is a collection of austere features that look as if they seldom left the soundstage: Absolute Power, Blood Work, Million Dollar Baby. Invictus is in the first group, and that’s where it draws a good portion of its strength. Thanks to Tom Stern’s cinematography and James Murikami’s production design, we stay deep enough in the world of Mandela’s new South Africa to feel the guarded optimism and seething tensions.

The rest of the work is supplied by the actors. Freeman and Damon are—surprise!—excellent. It’s especially encouraging to see Freeman fully embody his role. The great actor has coasted on his considerable presence at times over the past few years. Damon proves again that coasting isn’t an option. To play Pienaar, Damon added serious muscle to his constantly changing frame, and he immerses himself in the game and his Afrikaans accent. Hard to believe the same guy played the doughy Mark Whitacre in The Informant! this year. Also great is Tony Kgoroge as Mandela’s trusted guard Jason. Kgoroge is as decent and intense as he was lazy and frightening as Gregoire in 2004’s Hotel Rwanda. His having to work with the same white presidential guards who used to hunt and kill men like him, is one of the more restrained and effective strands of Eastwood’s film.

Is Invictus ultimately too simplistic to do justice to the event it portrays? I can’t say with any authority. But as someone who knew only the broad strokes of Mandela’s career and nothing of the 1995 Springboks, Invictus is a most fulfilling history lesson. Hopefully word-of-mouth will draw people to this truly thrilling movie.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard readers for many years.