INVICTUS

 Read the review and do the following tasks:

1. Look up the meaning of some of the words taken from the text and
ask your partner about the others.

Well, folks, I loved “INVICTUS”! It’s a very good film – not a 1 biopic really but an
inspirational movie on Nelson Mandela’s 2 achievement in uniting a nation through
sport.

Some time ago, I had already seen “Goodbye Bafana”, a film about the relationship
between Mandela and his censor officer and prison guard, James Gregory. Even if the
ties portrayed in the film are not 100% accurate, at least we have an idea of how
hard it might have been to spend 18 years on Robben Island (of the 27 he spent in
prison), breaking rocks, sleeping on the floor of a tiny cell, being humiliated and
censored all the time. “Goodbye Bafana” ends with Mandela’s 3 release from prison –
on 11th February 1990 – at the very moment in which “Invictus” starts.

Immediately after being released, Nelson Mandela (often called Madiba, an honorary
title adopted by elders of his clan) works to end Apartheid and to make peace with
those who had put him in jail for so long. The first full democratic elections take
place in 1994 and Mandela is elected president of South Africa but as an opposition
newspaper put it “He can win an election, but can he run a country?” Indeed, there
is much to be done to overcome decades of segregation, racial tensions and violence
and 4healing such a divided nation (present even through his own security team) has
to start by those who surround him…

While Mandela attempts to 5 tackle the country's largest

problems - including crime and unemployment - he attends a game of the Springboks,
the country's rugby union team. Blacks in the stadium cheer against their home
squad, as the Springboks (their history, players and even their colours) represent
prejudice and apartheid in their mind. Knowing that South Africa is set to 6 host the
1995 Rugby World Cup in one year's time, Mandela convinces the South African rugby
board to keep the Springbok team, name and colours the same. He then meets with
the Springboks' captain François Pienaar (Matt Damon). Though Mandela never
verbalizes his true meaning during their meeting, Pienaar understands the message
below the surface: if the Springboks can gain the support of black South Africans and
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succeed in the upcoming World Cup, the country will be unified and inspired.
Mandela also shares with Pienaar that a poem, Invictus, had been inspiring to him
during his time in prison, helping him to "stand when all he wanted to do was lie
down".
Pienaar and his teammates train, but the players (all but one are white) voice
disapproval that they are to be 8 envoys to the poor and public - fearing 9
exhaustion from overwork. Mandela, too, hears disapproval from friends and family.
For many blacks, especially the radicals, the Springboks symbolised white supremacy
and did not want to 10 support their national team.

Things begin to change, however, as the players went around interacting with the
locals. During their last few pre-tournament friendlies, support for the Springboks
begins to grow amongst the blacks. The World Cup begins, and citizens of all races
turn out in numbers to show their unanimous support for the Springboks. At the
suggestion of several security guards, Mandela decides to sport a Springbok jersey
with Pienaar's number 6 on it to show his support and his name is chanted repeatedly
by the home crowd during his entrance, a contrast to a previous rugby match scene,
in which Mandela is booed by some of the whites in the crowd. As momentum builds,
even the security team members become at ease with each other and the black
members who disliked rugby eventually began to enthusiastically support their
national team alongside their white colleagues.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus_(film)

VOCABULARY:
1. biopic:
2. achievement:
3. release:
4. healing:
5. tackle:
6. host:
7. succeed:
8. envoys:
9. exhaustion:
10. support:
I really liked this movie. I believe Morgan Freeman truly incarnates the character
and Clint Eastwood is very 11
successful in making us admire Nelson Mandela,
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proud of François Pienaar and Springbok supporters.

A Nobel Peace Prize winner – among many other prizes – Mandela 13

reminds me
of Gandhi with his nonviolence strategy. Again, even if the film is not 100% 14

accurate, it is a lesson on 15forgiveness and simplicity, and 16as far as I am

concerned, a tribute to one of the greatest men of our times, an 17

“unconquered” soul, who gave his very best for the transition towards a multi-
democratic South Africa – the rainbow nation – and 18thus, to world 19freedom.
Don’t miss "INVICTUS"!!!

VOCABULARY:

11. successful:
12. proud of:
13. remind sb of:
14. accurate:
15. forgiveness:
16. as far as I am concerned:
17. unconquered:
18. thus:
19. freedom:
2. Answer the following questions:

What´s a springbok?

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Why do they call South Africa the “rainbow nation”?

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What do these dates or numbers refer to?

27
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1994

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1995
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11th February 1990

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3. Say if the following statements are TRUE or FALSE:

1. People also call Nelson Mandela Madiba as a nickname.

2. “Invictus” is about Nelson Mandela´s biography.
3. Two of the country´s major problems were unemployment and
crime when Mandela was elected president.
4. At first, people disapproved of Mandela supporting the Sprinboks.
5. At the World Cup Mandela was booed when he appeared wearing
the Sprinboks´ T-shirt.

4. Answer the following questions:

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

 Explain what these words mean. Why do you think they were
so important for Nelson Mandela while he was in prison?

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 What was the Apartheid in South Africa?

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 Which was Mandela´s important achievement supporting the

Sprinboks, the country´s rugby union team?
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 Why was Mandela given the Peace Nobel Prize?

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"Invictus" is a short poem by the English English poet William Ernest
Henley (1849–1903). It was written in 1875 and first published in 1888 [1]in
Henley's Book of Verses.

"Invictus"
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and
tears
Looms but the Horror of the
shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
Más allá de la noche que me cubre
negra como el abismo insondable,
doy gracias a los dioses que pudieran existir
por mi alma invicta.
En las azarosas garras de las circunstancias
nunca me he lamentado ni he pestañeado.
Sometido a los golpes del destino
mi cabeza está ensangrentada, pero erguida.
Más allá de este lugar de cólera y lágrimas
donde yace el Horror de la Sombra,
la amenaza de los años
me encuentra, y me encontrará, sin miedo.
No importa cuán estrecho sea el portal,
cuán cargada de castigos la sentencia,
soy el amo de mi destino:
soy el capitán de mi alma.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments
the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Nelson
Mandela wearing the Sprinboks´
T-shirt.