Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s film adaptation of John Carlin’s Playing the Enemy will be released in South Africa on 11 December. As the hype around the movie grows, Pan Macmillan author Kevin Bloom wonders how rugby fans will react to the real thing.
Apparently there’s a lot of rugby in Invictus. The first reviews are in, and while the critics have so far said it’s an okay (but not outstanding) film, a lot of them seem to be quite taken with the game. The Huffington Post reviewer reckons the movie’s got more rugby in it than she’s ever seen anywhere. “I’m into it now,” she writes. “Might see some in real life.”Lovely to hear. But the same reviewer then gives Invictus a six out of ten, which has got to make you wonder how it’s going to be received by South Africans. Ruben Kruger, Kobus Wiese, Naka Drotske, Rudolph Straeuli and Brendan Venter are all listed as dramatis personae, and the local audience is nothing if not wise to the subtleties of these mens’ movements across a rugby field. Can Graham Lindemann really demonstrate the awesomeness of Kobus’s arrival at a ruck? Can Rolf Fitschen throw a lineout ball as straight as Naka?
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