Comments on: Invictus

By: Chez

Chez — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:09:14 +0000

Thank you for this article. i had no intention of seeing this movie at all but you have successfully changed my mind. To MARK ANTHONY, a lot of S.Africans i have spoken to are glad the movie was made but not crazy about seeing it. i think maybe because we lived the time and are perhaps a bit tired of looking back. it has been doing well though so there is certainly an interest. who can resist Morgan Freeman in anything!

By: mandla

mandla — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:58:47 +0000

Just to give you a good perspective of cultural distortion:

Imagine us being rich black South Africans and doing a movie for the world on Michael Jackson and starring Somzi Mhlongo in the lead role? (No offence meant Somizi, you are greatly talented but I just want to underline my point). Imagine black Americans enthralled by the idea.

(Something is not true here! You’d think for yourself. Where’s the catch?)

The greatest self-education achievement you could attain as an individual, is to transcend the American Dream, not the rags-to-riches-dream, but the re-making of our world into the ubiquitous crass American image. It’s not a wrong image BUT it’s not our image!

In the drama of life we need to be authentically ourselves, to be taken seriously and respected as full human beings. America will continue making movies about other people, I have no problem with that. I have a problem with a black South African who cant see the trees for the forest.

By: mandla

mandla — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:36:38 +0000

The Americans tell everybody’s story in the world. They have the money and the influence to do so. But they tell it their own way.

All Masters of the Universe did so in human history. From Grandiloquent Egyptians, copycat Greeks, strutting Roman conquerors, .. and it is naive to think Americans can be the exception.

Tinseltown is about myth,and magic and the world loves that. There are many important things that the Americans have unintentionally distorted in their zeal to assimilate other people’s histories.

They have distorted the story of Jesus and christianity and left us with a commercialised caricture buttressed with literal interpretations and more dollar pledges.

They have carried capitalism to its logical absurd conclusion that Karl Marx could hardly have imagined: The Global Financial Crisis.

They have killed our music and left us buttock-slipping baggy-trousered expletive chanting minstrels which our children love with intoxicated envy.

They have distorted the world by racially defining terrorism after 9/11 and exporting death and destruction with our silent tacit consent.

Morgan Freeman is a good actor but he told an American story: cheap. bubblegum, give-me-five caricacture of the rich, earthy, complex human story of Nelson Mandela.

If you dont believe me why didnt Clint Eastwood give Mandela the script in the first place in 1994 so that Mandela can act himself?

Truth, and authenticity are far from the mind of Hollywood moguls. The danger is when the real Mandela gets replaced by Hollywood fiction .

By: Mark Anthony

Mark Anthony — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:15:27 +0000

I just watched the movie (in the States) and I totally agree with you, particularly in regard to the accents. Especially after having studied abroad in South Africa, I found the story and locations to be extremely moving. I wonder, how have other South Africans received the film?

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:01:39 +0000

news.google.co.za had a direct link to this article on their front page – respect brother…

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:46:12 +0000

Ok…not that I was planning on not going to see the movie – but this has just made it more urgent. Simple and yet…

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Thought Leader » Khaya Dlanga » Invictus [thoughtleader.co.za] on Topsy.com

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:35:11 +0000

[...] Thought Leader » Khaya Dlanga » Invictus http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/khayadlanga/2009/12/10/invictus-movie-review-freeman-is-mandela – view page – cached Instead of keeping the suspense till the end of this blog I guess I should tell you right now you should go see the movie. See it or the terrorists win. Now that we got that out of the way I review… Read moreInstead of keeping the suspense till the end of this blog I guess I should tell you right now you should go see the movie. See it or the terrorists win. Now that we got that out of the way I review it without really giving away the story, although most of us know how this story ends. View page [...]