it was nice watching invictus movie in waterfront, cape town, the very place couple of scenes take place, and a place from which the boat to robben island starts.

when i watch clint eastwood movies i enjoy them, they are very basic, easy to digest. it is clear who is good and who is bad. it is all about the good guys vs. the bad guys. clint eastwood movies make star wars seem like a super complex drama… and this is ok. this is eastwood’s style. this is how acts (i guess, i do not have time to check all his movies but all i have seen are like this) and this is how he directs. some storytellers like it complicated, some like it simple.

when i go to cinema (yes, i do love the cinema) and i watch a clint eastwood movie i know what i get and i enjoy it.

but…

there is one thing which bugs me and i think eastwood makes a mistake here, especially in invictus:

he uses characters to metaphorically present certain influences in the movie, and this work fine in terms of fiction. for example the evil wizard is always bad, the knight on the white horse is good. simple. eastwood style.

but in invictus eastwood uses francois pienaar‘s parents, especially the father, as a metaphor for a bad influence, for apartheid support and resistance towards change which mandela and francois work for.

if i was pienaar i would surely be upset if my parents was represented in such a negative, generalized and superficial manner.

eastwood should have thinked a bit better to solve this problem and to establish this influence in the story in a better way, without such disrespect towards pienaar’s family.

eastwood got carried away too much with fiction, if characters are invented storytellers can do whatever they want with characters, the bad guys can be very bad, and good guys can be very good, but when they work with real people, some caution should be taken because an image of a person can easily be completely ruined.

another mistake eastwood made was representation of chester williams who is presented to the audience with something like “i am not here to think but to play rugby”. so the only black player on the south african rugby team is too scared to give an opinion… harsh judgement on chester.

clint eastwood’s movies are relaxing and fun, very generalized and simple, and this works within the realm of fiction, but when he gets his hands on real stories, real historical events, real people, he should be a bit smarter how he represents them.