Academy Award® Nominated: Invictus

Ensemble post by: Audiegrl, Geot, and BuellBoy


The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.

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The cast includes: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng, Matt Stern, Julian Lewis Jones, Adjoa Andoh, Marguerite Wheatley, Leleti Khumalo, and Patrick Lyster

Reviews

IMDB member from Canada
The story of how Nelson Mandela used the World Cup of Rugby to unite the people of South Africa. A very well told story with Clint Eastwood showing why he is one of the best directors in Hollywood. Morgan Freeman does a good job as Mandela, but it wasn’t my favorite performance he’s given us. However, Matt Damon, who plays Francois Pienaar, captain of the national rugby team, delivers an emotional and believable performance that really draws you into what was taking place during the conflict between the whites and blacks of their nation. The South African cities and landscapes are beautifully shot and the scenes during the rugby matches placed you in the action, without any nauseating feelings. An uplifting film that left me with a sense of hope and belief that we still have a chance for mankind to come together before it is too late.

Did You Know?

Nelson Mandela himself has said that only Morgan Freeman could portray him. And so Freeman was the first actor cast.

Before production began, Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary made a trip to South Africa to get Nelson Mandela’s blessing for the film. According to McCreary, Freeman started off by saying, “Madiba, we’ve been working a long time on this other project, but we’ve just read something that we think might get to the core of who you are…” Before he had finished, Madiba said, “Ah, the World Cup.” For McCreary, that was “when I knew we were heading in the right direction.”

The word “invictus” is Latin for “invincible.” It is also the name of a short poem written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley, a British poet. The poem was written while Henley was in hospital having to have his stricken foot amputated. Mandela is heard saying lines from the poem.

Matt Damon informed Clint Eastwood about Francois Pienaar’s distinct physique: “You know, this guy is huge!” Eastwood replied, “Hell, you worry about everything else. Let me worry about that.” By structuring set-ups and camera angles, Eastwood was able to make the average-height Damon look about Pienaar’s height

Two Nominations

Best Actor~Morgan Freeman
Best Supporting Actor~Matt Damon

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Nominated for Best Actor ~ Morgan Freeman ~Invictus

Ensemble post by: Audiegrl

Morgan Freeman (Nelson Mandela / Executive Producer) won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby,” for which he also won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award® and received a Golden Globe nomination. The film marked his second collaboration with director Clint Eastwood, following Freeman’s role in the Oscar®-winning Best Picture “Unforgiven.”

Freeman has been honored with three additional Oscar® nominations, the first for his chilling performance in the 1987 drama “Street Smart,” which also brought him Los Angeles, New York, and National Society of Film Critics Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He earned his second Oscar® nomination and won Golden Globe and National Board of Review Awards for Best Actor for the 1989 film “Driving Miss Daisy,” in which he recreated his award-winning off-Broadway role. He gained his third Oscar® nod, as well as Golden Globe and SAG Award® nominations, for his performance in Frank Darabont’s 1994 drama “The Shawshank Redemption.”

His more recent film work includes starring roles in Christopher Nolan’s blockbusters “The Dark Knight” and “Batman Begins”; Rob Reiner’s “The Bucket List,” opposite Jack Nicholson; Robert Benton’s “Feast of Love”; Ben Affleck’s “Gone Baby Gone”; “Lucky Number Slevin”; Lasse Hallström’s “An Unfinished Life,” with Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez; the Jet Li actioner “Unleashed,” written by Luc Besson; and the comedy “Bruce Almighty” and its sequel, “Evan Almighty.” He also lent his distinctive voice to Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” and the Oscar®-winning documentary “March of the Penguins.”

Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in Invictus

Freeman’s earlier film credits include “The Sum of All Fears,” “High Crimes,” “Along Came a Spider,” “Nurse Betty,” “Deep Impact,” “Hard Rain,” Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Se7en,” “Glory,” “Lean on Me,” “Clean and Sober,” “Marie,” “Teachers,” “Harry & Son” and “Brubaker.”

In 1993, Freeman made his film directorial debut with “Bopha!” and soon after formed Revelations Entertainment. The company’s most recent production was the Brad Silberling comedy “10 Items or Less,” in which Freeman starred with Paz Vega.

The Memphis-born actor began his career on New York stages in the early 1960s, following a stint as a mechanic in the Air Force. A decade later, he became a nationally known television personality when he created the popular character Easy Reader on the popular children’s show “The Electric Company.” Throughout the 1970s, he continued his work on stage, winning Drama Desk and Clarence Derwent Awards and receiving a Tony Award nomination for his performance in “The Mighty Gents” in 1978. In 1980, he won Obie Awards for his portrayal of Shakespearean anti-hero Coriolanus at the New York Shakespeare Festival and for his work in “Mother Courage and Her Children.” Freeman won another Obie in 1984 for his performance as The Messenger in the acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music production of Lee Breuer’s “The Gospel at Colonus” and, in 1985, won the Drama-Logue Award for the same role. In 1987, Freeman created the role of Hoke Coleburn in Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Driving Miss Daisy,” which brought him his fourth Obie Award. In 1990, Freeman starred as Petruchio in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” opposite Tracey Ullman. Returning to the Broadway stage in 2008, Freeman starred with Frances McDormand and Peter Gallagher in Clifford Odett’s drama “The Country Girl,” directed by Mike Nichols.

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Morgan Freeman Replaces Walter Cronkite On CBS Evening News Voice-over

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Actor, film director, and narrator Morgan Freeman

Associated Press/David Bauder~~Nearly six months after Walter Cronkite‘s death, his voice is leaving the “CBS Evening News.”

His introduction of anchor Katie Couric was replaced Monday by a voiceover featuring actor Morgan Freeman.

The legendary CBS News anchor recorded the introduction, played at the beginning of most newscasts, when Couric started at CBS in 2006. Cronkite’s voice was kept on the air even after his death July 17.

The most trusted man in news, Walter Cronkite 1916~2009

“As comforting as it is to look back on the great career that Walter had, we’re looking forward now and we just felt it was the right time to make the move that at some point had to be made,” said CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus. “This seemed like the appropriate time since Walter’s passing to make the move.”

Having Freeman on board gives CBS the flexibility to record different intros when Couric has special reports and is on location, he said.

CBS has replaced Cronkite with a generic voice over the past few months when it wanted to highlight something special.

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Beaten, Robbed, a Victim of Hate: Charges say white assailants hurled racial epithets as they attacked two black men in Brooklyn Park

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Derrick Thomas showed the bruises and cuts inflicted this week in Brooklyn Park in a beating that authorities are treating as a hate crime. A neighbor called 911, and police arrested two suspects as they committed a second assault nearby.

Minnesota Star Tribune/ Paul Walsh & Abby Simons—Derrick Thomas was on his bike with home in his sights, returning about 1 a.m. Wednesday from hanging out with his girlfriend and cousin in Brooklyn Park.

Before he knew to be terrified, Thomas, who has autism, found himself flying over his handlebars and writhing on his back on the concrete. Standing over him, he said, were three men armed with an ax, brass knuckles and a gun.

They beat and kicked the 18-year-old while screaming a racial epithet, and they ordered him to strip naked, he told police. Then they robbed him of everything he had, including his Air Jordans, blue jeans and shirt. Police said Thomas has a mental capacity of someone 8 to 10 years old.

“They were saying stuff like, ‘We hate the president; we’re gonna kill the president, his wife and his kids,'” Thomas recalled from his front stoop Friday, his left eye puffy and discolored. “They said every black person that comes through our park, we’re gonna kick their butt. We don’t like black people, period.”

Bryan Westerlund

The assault, and another on a second black man — Thomas’ uncle — just blocks away, led authorities Friday to file assault and robbery charges against Anthony P. Kilpela and Bryan C. Westerlund, both 21 and both white, of Minneapolis.
“We’re incensed,” said an angry Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who took the unusual step of calling a news conference about the charges from his living room while he was home ill.

Anthony Kilpela

“We will send the message that these kinds of hate crimes are not to be tolerated,” Freeman continued. “You do the racial thing, you’re gonna do more time, and we’ve asked for more time.”

The alleged comments about the Obamas drew the attention of the Secret Service, whose agents interviewed Thomas on Friday, according to his family.

“We will appropriately investigate, as we do all threats against the president,” said John Kirkwood, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Minneapolis field office. Such threats, Kirkwood said, are felonies.

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