Invictus 2009  film journal analysis  

1.What did the film look and sound like? 

2.What are the aural (sound) and visual elements of the film?  Talk about their contribution to the film's overall success or failure.  Keep in mind, the visual and aural qualities and properties of the film medium determines the effectiveness of a motion picture. 

3.Examine the filmmaker's use of camera angles and camera movement, focus, framing, lighting, setting, editing, point of view, special effects, dialogue, and music. 

4.What is the filmmaker's purpose in making the film? Is it to instruct? Make us aware of an issue? Is the filmmaker trying to persuade us to his/her point of view (ideology)? Is the filmmaker merely entertaining us with a story? Is the filmmaker trying to make us think?  To scare us out of complacency or scare us just for the thrill of scaring us? Each film and filmmaker is different.

5.After exploring these major cinematic elements and describing specific examples of their use, include your personal reactions to the film and explain your reasons for liking or disliking it. 

 

1.In "Invictus", director Clint Eastwood lucidly captures this dishonorable socio-economic existence from the get-go.  In the opening scene, a group of white teens - wearing sparkling, striped uniforms - partake in an organized rugby practice on a lush, green turf.  Just across the road, black kids - wearing the clothes on their backs - play soccer on a grayish-brown meadow that has four net-less, crossbar-less metal poles standing in as two goals on either side of the makeshift field.  Still, these youngsters share a collective enthusiasm for playing the beautiful game. 

2.Invictus tells the story of South African President Nelson Mandela's efforts to unite his torn country under the auspices of the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship. Director Clint Eastwood collaborated with visual effects supervisor Michael Owens and CIS Vancouver to create virtual stadiums and crowds, plus key digital make-up effects, for the pivotal rugby matches seen in the film.

3.A useful idea might be to go through the film multiple times, pause at certain moments and note what you can both see and hear. Turn on the subtitles to help decipher the dialogue - note these quotes down. It may also be worthwhile to read through the actual script to Invictus; from this we can learn of the intentions of Eastwood from a different perspective what he wanted to show his audience in each scene. In this scene, Eastwood utilizes wide, high angle framing to represent the enormity of the stadium; filled with Afrikaners who, predominantly, detest the new President. Still, even as the framing is constantly filled with these Springboks sports fans, the director shows us the smiling, confident Mandela, who warmly waves to his new 'partners in democracy' without fear or distaste. We can see this as the camera draws in on Mandela's facial expressions. Moreover, the courage of Mandela is exhibited as he exits the stadium and a sports fan hurls a drink at him. Even despite that he 'sees everything', Mandela continues to wave and smile at the crowd.  

Camera shots/techniques:

• Shots: extreme long
• shot/long shot, medium shot, close-up
• shot/extreme close-up
• Establishing
• shots: first shot of a new scene, shows the audience where the scene is taking place.
• Depth of
• field: distance between closest and furthest objects giving a focused image. 

Camera angles:

• Bird's-eye
• view, low angle, eye-level, high angle
• Skewed angle:
• camera set on an angle (horizon line is not parallel with the bottom of the
• frame)

Camera movements: 

• Zooming, panning/tilting, tracking, hand-held

Mise en Scene: the arrangement of a frame; the artistic look of a shot in its elements of lighting, color, camera techniques, sets, costumes, etc.

Lighting: high-key (bright, low shadow and contrast) or low-key (underlet, strong contrast between light and dark)

4.The purpose f the film is to help the audience to reflect that sport has the power to change the world.  It has the power to inspire.  It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.  Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.  It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.

5.Freeman does a splendid job of evoking the man Nelson Mandela, who is as much a secular saint as Gandhi (who led his first campaign in Durban, South Africa). He shows him as genial, confident, calming -- over what was clearly a core of tempered steel. The focus is on his early time in office. I believe there may be one scene with a woman representing Winnie Mandela, but the dialogue is vague. Damon is effective at playing the captain, Francois Pienaar, an Afrikaner, child of racist parents, transformed by his contact with "the greatest man I've ever met." Clint Eastwood, a master director, orchestrates all of these notes and has us loving Mandela, proud of Francois and cheering for the plucky Springboks. A great entertainment. Not, as I said, the Mandela biopic I would have expected.