Essay on politicizing sports

Invictus Movie

The movie ‘ Invictus’ a sport based film written by Clint Eastwood. The title means ‘ unconquered’. The main actors are Morgan Freeman, and Matt Damon. Freeman and Damon represented the President of South Africa Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaar Springbok captain respectively. It gives a description of rugby events that took place through the 1995 world cup that the president used as advantage to unite the country and fight apartheid. It portrays the challenges that the president faced to achieve the common good of the State and eradicate the apartheid era that had faced the citizens of South Africa for a long period.

In the film, Freeman reinforces his ideas on uniting and healing the nation from apartheid by using the national team captain Damon and the South Africa Sports Committee. After watching the rugby game between Springbok and England, Freeman noted that blacks were supporting the foreign team that was unexpected of him. It was because the blacks saw the whites in their national team as superiors, and they never appreciated the contributions to their great country. Morgan Freeman decided to schedule meetings with Matt Damon and the sports committee so as to influence their assistance in his mission to use rugby to cure their beloved nation.
The president goals and objectives influences the captains focus and diverge his targets as the leader of the national team. The captain had a dream of winning trophies for his country, but the president changed his mind to focus on winning the world cup to help unite the blacks and the whites.
Both parties agreed to help him for the best of the entire country by ensuring Springbok shone in the anticipated rugby world cup. The president had seen great opportunity to turn the support of the entire country to their team by ensuring the captain trained the players adequately. It was achieved by the team winning the opening matches. During the game, fans interacted, and this changed the perspective at which everybody viewed each other. Unity was attained through the president’s dream coming into reality.

National identity

Some difficulty moments that were faced by the President Mandela’s security members are shown clearly. Here, the blacks and the whites were involved to serve him regardless of their races. It was not an easy task but they performed their duties well as it was prescribed and this proved how racism wasn’t an issue to dwell on, but patriotism was portrayed by the crew. The team loved its responsibilities because their wish was to ensure the president interests were secure for the good of the State as a whole.
Clint Eastwood in his film portrays some politics which is one of the important pillars of national identity when Freeman politicizes sports. The president influences other parties for him to achieve his plans for the good of all. These parties include; the captain of the national team and the sports committee that had control over the resources that were used in sports. The president influenced them to ensure both blacks and whites got united for the common good of the entire country.

Agent and institution

The film’s director gives a reflection of several agents and institutions that were used by Morgan Freeman to administer his mission and plans. Matt Damon the captain of the South African rugby team and the sports committee were one of the important parties that the president encouraged to assist in implementing his plans. In this case, an agent is a legal party that undertakes a given activity on behalf of another. The president through the captain efforts was able to achieve his plans that included winning of matches and training hard. It is an aspect that changed the Damon focus of winning trophies to help healing their beloved country.
The president had just come from prison where he was detained for 27 years, and the only thing that he saw important to his country was forgiveness and reconciliation. He was concerned with ensuring the blacks and the whites worked together as a team to ensure the State acted as one for a common good. Good results were possible if he had to use agents and institutions even though his party African National Congress (ANC) had established a commission to investigate and research on the appropriate ways to deal with past human violation acts , in order to ensure the country does not go back to those times. The National Execution Committee was established to assist in the activities that the president was also involved in.

Contingency and structure

These are some of the aspects that were evident on Presidents believes towards achieving his goals and objectives on uniting and healing his beloved country. Contingency involves creating a possibility of achieving the prepared and set objectives. In the film, Eastwood uses Freeman to portray this theme by his believes that only through the anticipated rugby world cup, he could unite the nation. The film is also set in different scenes that ensure the themes are well structured by the use of the right actors for example Morgan Freeman, who resembled the president of South Africa Nelson Mandera.
The possibility of winning the president’s goals was enhanced by the parties that included in the process. These parties are captain and the sports committee which undertook their independent responsibilities to ensure the State achieves its goal. At the end of the journey, the blacks and the whites came together, and the epidemic called apartheid was forgotten. This took place as a process a step after the other whereby Springbok won the opening match and after interaction between fans was experienced, the focus for a common goal was seen as important to both the blacks and the whites.

Bibliography

Carlin, John. 2010. Invictus Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. London: Atlantic Books Ltd. http://public. eblib. com/choice/publicfullrecord. aspx? p= 898369.