The Good, the Bad and the Rugby
Roar Pro
By marc miller, 17 Aug 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
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December 11, 2009 is slated as the US release of Invictus, the Clint Eastwood movie focusing on the 1995 World Cup Rugby and based on the novel Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela & the Game That Changed a Nation.
Morgan Freeman stars as Mandela while whispers are emerging that Matt Damon may be in Oscar contention for his portrayal of Springbok captain Francois Pienarr.
Eastwood, a self confessed diehard rugby fan, whose directing efforts have bought in more than 1 billion dollars at the box office and resulted in 2 of his 5 Oscars has proven to be a master behind the camera during his long and impactful film career.
Eastwood is a no nonsense director who is renowned for his strong story-lines and the ability to capture and emote action scenes – so can we expect rugby to be filmed and portrayed on big screen, unlike anything we have ever seen before?
Cinematographer Tom Stern is DOP and has worked alongside Eastwood in Gran Torino, Changeling, Flags of our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima and Million Dollar Baby, so we have some idea of the richness of quality to expect.
The story revolves around rugby and the climatic scenes centre on the final between the Boks and the All Blacks.
Eastwood knows his US audience has no idea about the rules of rugby – and in most cases no knowledge about the sport at all.
So we should expect that Eastwood is going to have to present rugby in such a manner that the US audiences are able to comprehend and understand what is going on.
Many cite the reason that rugby has been unable to gain traction in the US is simply because the viewing public have no idea what is going on. Eastwood’s film is going to gain a large audience, most likely all the way through to the Oscars, and is going to make rugby a topic throughout the US.
Who would have thought the tipping point of taking rugby into the American market – and perhaps bringing big funding into the sport – may just have come down to Clint Eastwood.
Now that Makes My Day.
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wannabprop said | August 17th 2009 @ 8:49am | Report comment
Who’s playing Susie the waitress?
Temba said | August 17th 2009 @ 10:29am | Report comment
Yeah who is playing the magical mouri fairy that was suppose to protect the AB’s against susie?
Ziggy said | August 17th 2009 @ 10:55am | Report comment
When you compare Pienaar’s height and weight to Damon, you hope that Clint gets the camera angles right!
Ziggy said | August 17th 2009 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
Charlize Theron should play Suzie.
Jerry G said | August 17th 2009 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
Ziggy – they’ve made sure to downsize everyone else so as to make Damon look the right size. Zac Feaunati (former Wellington and London Irish player) who is playing Lomu is nowhere near as big as the real deal (as well as being about 15 years older than Jonah was in 95).
wannabprop said | August 17th 2009 @ 3:19pm | Report comment
So they need to have a very very small person play Rory (or was it Tony) that Jonah runs over in the semi – If they get that scene right, I’ll come out of the theatre very happy…
Nick P-G said | August 17th 2009 @ 5:07pm | Report comment
I didnt know Eastwood was a rugby fan. That is interesting.
If he puts Rugby on the map in Northen America I will jump for joy.
Working Class Rugger said | August 17th 2009 @ 5:19pm | Report comment
Money on they use the actual footage from the RWC. Otherwise they’d have to hire a miget to portray Rory Underwood.
It would be an interesting footnote in Rugby’s history, if Eastwood is credited with giving Rugby in the US its first big break.
Stash said | August 17th 2009 @ 8:44pm | Report comment
Eastwood is a class act – can’t see him using actual footage… maybe for the credits at the end.
I can’t see this detracting from USA rugby, it can only bring more attention to the sport.
Anyone know if the All Blacks/Wallabies are still going to play a 4th Bledsloie match in Dallas, Texas next year?
Ben J said | August 17th 2009 @ 8:49pm | Report comment
I simply can’t wait for the film, you can just imagine how this movie will be used to inspire thousands of American (and other) schoolboys to take up the sport. The fact that Eastwood and Damon are true household names in the US will lend the kind of credibility that 100 years of Olympic participation cannot produce. The fact that the movie has a strong underlying message of changing peoples lives in the face of adversity is a fantastic bonus.