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Clint Eastwood has done it yet again! Eastwood directs Invictus, the true story of Nelson Mandela's (Morgan Freeman) campaign with South African rugby team captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) to help rid the country of its cultural divide.
Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994, a time when the country had recently survived apartheid and suffered much economic trouble and racially instability. Mandela hopes to furthur unite South Africa through the South African rugby team. Mandela unites with team captain, Peinaar, helping to assist and inspire the mostly white team in their quest for a championship in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Director Clint Eastwood on the set of Invictus.
Morgan Freeman might look almost identical to Nelson Mandela. He might have similar mannerisms, tone, and personality traits that Mandela had. This however does not dismiss, in any way, the amazing acting job of Freeman. He turned himself into Mandela as much as any man could. He personified a compassionate, righteous leader with a Herculean task ahead of him. Freeman occasionally was cute enough to give the audience a chuckle, but careful to never vacate the intense seriousness of the film.
Freeman flies down to rugby practice to wish the team good luck--and to inspire Pienaar with the poem, "Invictus."
Matt Damon once again delivers a stellar perfomance as South African Sprinbok's captain, Francois Pienaar. While I'm sure he didn't master the accent he certainly made it believable enough to keep the movie Eastwood-credible. Damon does an excellent job portraying a young man who is confused and understanding at the same time. He knows his job is to carry through with Mandela's wish for the Springboks to win the World Cup, but at first does not exactly understand why. As Damon starts to realize the significance of his would-be accomplishments, he becomes the leader Mandela is looking for. While at first glimpse, I wondered if Damon should have had more scenes throughout the film, I realized Eastwood's intention was correct in concentrating on the state of South America and Mandela's impact on it while using the rugby team as a symbol of both hope and success of Mandela's campaign.
The real Nelson Mandela congratulating Fracois Pienaar on the team's victory.
Eastwood has become one of the best director's in modern history. Time and again he delivers master works concentrating on narrow, specific events to make a far bigger social statement. As far as Invictus goes, Eastwood shoots beautifully and delivers powerful scenes. There is a wonderfully powerful scene in which Pienaar goes to Mandela's old cell of 27 years and watches Mandela go through his daily life as though Mandela was there with him. Eastwood uses scenes to capture the tension between races such as when the white secret service meet Mandela's black security team, but also to show it's unity in scenes like with a little black child listening to the championship game with two while cops.
While any movie involving Eastwood, Freeman, and Damon should be excellent, it was refreshing to see one that did not disappoint, even surpassed expectations.
I watched Henry and June the other day. The movie is based on the diary of Parisian author Anais Nin and chronicles Nin's (Maria de Medeiros) romantic and lustful affairs with both the famous American author Henry Miller (Fred Ward) and his wife June (Uma Thurman). Nin is unsatisfied with her sex life and unhappy she cannot find what she is looking for in her husband, Hugo (Robert E. Grant). When Henry Miller goes to stay with Anais and Hugo, Anais is instantly attracted to his sexual masculinity and bravado. Her attraction to Henry eventually leads to Anais lusting for Henry's wife, June. When June heads back to work in the States, Nin and Miller start a wildly passionate affair. Through the affair Nin continues to explore herself sexually through Hugo as well as other men along the way. Throughout those years in the 1930's, Nin successfully chronicles the relationships which is later published and Henry Miller writes the classic book, The Tropic of Cancer.
Henry and June was the first movie to receive a NC-17 rating over the former X rating. The reason for this is not the multitude of sex scenes, including the handful between de Medeiros and Thurman, but for a three second shot early on in the film depicting a sexually explicit photo of a Japanese woman and a squid.
Maybe I just didn't understand the movie. Maybe it wasn't what I expected. Perhaps it was just a bad movie. Regardless, after it was finished, I was left with a feeling somewhere between perplexed and unsettled. Instead of this movie being a captivating and romantic movie describing relationships as well as the people in them, this movie ended up being little more than a soft-core porn. The movie was beautifully choreographed and shot, but that was the only thing excelling in the film. From what I could see, Ward failed to capture the deep and intellectual Henry Miller, instead concentrating on, and subsequently, overdramatizes both his robustness and his insecurities. de Medeiros was a very gorgeous, but uninspiring actress throughout the film.
The movie was two hours of lust and sex scenes. Rather than capture the essence of the characters, Henry and June is instead relegated to beautifying adultery and condoning deceit. I'm not sure that alone would make for a bad movie, but I for one feel like director Phillip Kaufman missed the point of Nin's journal: sexual exploration was Nin's vehicle for self-discovery and human enlightenment. Kaufman merely shows the diary as Nin's version of intense sexual desire for pleasure and pleasure alone.
I wrote about Nicolas Cage's movies, roles, awards, and talent in the last post. Cage was in line for the starring role in The Wrestler, but pulled himself out of the race because he knew director Darren Aronofsky's number one choice for the role was Mickey Rourke. As you know, Rourke went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for best actor in the role. Rourke acted the part perfectly and deserved all the critical acclaim he received for his role in The Wrestler.
While Rourke did an excellent job, he was meant to play the part. It's no wonder Aronofsky wanted Rourke to play the part. The life of both Randy "The Ram" Robinson and Mickey Rourke have a number ofsimilarities that made Rourke's portrayal of Robinson so believable.
In The Wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson is a washed up wrestler who was famous in the 1980's. He had since fallen out of the spotlight and now wrestles on the weekends in small independent venues. In the movie, Robinson struggles with trying to fix the part of his life that he ignored while being a famous celebrity. Even though his career is virtually over, he struggles with letting it go even when he's told by doctors his health has deteriorated to the point where he needs to quit.
Rourke in The Wrestler
In real life, Rourke became a star actor in the 1980's. He became well know through his critically acclaimed performances in such movies as The Outsiders, The Pope of Greenwich Village, and 9 and 1/2 Weeks. Towards the end of the decade and into the early 90's, Rourke acted in several box office bombs and poorly reviewed movies. He also made several perplexing acting decisions; Rourke is said to have turned down roles as Axel Foley Beverly Hills Cops, Elliot Ness in The Untouchables, and Nick Nolte's role in 48 Hrs. Between his opting out of successful films and the poor showings of the movies he did act in, Rourke was slowly fading out of the spotlight.
A Younger Rourke
He decided to go back to boxing and after posting a 6-0-2 record in the ring, Rourke returned to acting. After several years of taking supporting roles, Rourke once again found himself in the mainstream with a leading role in Sin City. He continued to find smaller roles in mainstream movies like Man on Fire and Domino.
Rourke in Sin City
And with irony working at its finest, Rourke seemed to make it all the way back to the top this past year in The Wrestler. To do so, Rourke had to play a role in which the character's life seemed to mimic Rourke's real life trials and tribulations. Rourke, who once found his way out of stardom, kept on fighting to get back on top of his game had finally made it, and he did so while playing--himself.
Over the last week or so I watched two movies starring Nicolas Cage, 8mm and Next. I had somehow never seen 8mm before and I rather enjoyed it. On the other hand, Next was a joke of a movie with horrible acting and a ridiculous script. It got me thinking; what happened to Nicolas Cage's acting career?
Cage's career started with roles in such classics as Fast Times at Ridgemont High ('82) and Valley Girl ('83). His first major successful starring role was in the Coen Brothers dark comedy, Raising Arizona ('87). After Raising Arizona, Cage was nominated for several various best actor awards for his roles in Moonstruck ('87), Vampire's Kiss ('89), and Honeymoon in Vegas ('92). With over twenty film credits to Cage's career, he landed his most acclaimed role yet in Leaving Las Vegas ('95). Starring opposite Elizabeth Shue, Cage plays Ben Sanderson, a depressed alcoholic for which Cage was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor
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The fourth and final volume of DMB's documentary concentrates mostly on their latest album, "The Road to Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King." The opening starts with Carter Beauford claiming every song on this CD is his favorite, but he really likes the song, "Seven".
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DMB went back home to produce their fourth studio album, Everyday. It did not go well and the band put the CD on hold and got rid of their producer, Steve Lillywhite. The six songs that they had finished were leaked and were dubbed as the "Lillywhite sessions". They went to Glen Ballard, who was known for his pop albums, and he helped write twelve songs to finish the CD. Dave Matthews said he felt that the album was not really "them".
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The second volume of the documentary begins in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dave Matthews met Carter Beauford and Leroi Moore at Miller's, a restaurant in Charlottesville. Dave asked to work there as a bartender after he heard Tim Reynolds play there. The band's birth took place upstairs at Miller's when Dave asked Carter and Leroi to listen to a couple of his songs. From there Dave picked up Boyd from his band, The Boyd Tinsley Band. Stefan Lessard was added when his father, who had played in the past with Carter, asked Carter to let his son audition for bass. That's how the band got together.
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The documentary started with the band headed out to play a live show; appropriate considering that is what the band is known for. The first half of the documentary is spent introducing the members of the band: Boyd Tinsley on violin, Tim Reynolds on guitar, Carter Beauford on drums, Steffan Lessard on bass, and new members Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross on saxophone and trumpet, respectively. The band members were described in the context of what they do and bring to the band's live performances.
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Dave Matthews Band performed on June 1, 2009 at Beacon Theater in New York. I caught the show streamed on Hulu. It was quite an excellent show. It was there watching that I found out that for the rest of the week, FUSE would be showing a four-part documentary the making of Dave Matthews Band's newly released CD, "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King". Over the next four posts, I will be writing about each episode because, well frankly, I'm interested in seeing it.
I watched The Bounty yesterday on Hulu. I had never heard of the movie and was very surprised when I saw the cast. I figured the movie had to be very good with the actors being Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Daniel-Day Lewis, and Liam Neeson.
Well as it turns out, there was a reason I had never heard of this movie. It was terribly boring. Even with the acting being very good, the actors could not save this movie's simple and mundane plot. The whole movie's premise was explaining the events that led up to the mutiny of the English ship that was headed to Tahiti for trade in the 18th century
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on The Wrestler (2008) - Mickey Rourke Interview Included
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