Give Morgan The Oscar! Two Thumbs Up for Invictus!

Me and my friend Joe, had the wonderful opportunity to see this movie this past Saturday night we enjoyed it. Morgan Freeman seemed that he was born to play former South African President Neslon Mandela.  Like Meryl Streep who brilliantly channeled the spirit of Julia Child in this past summers Julie and Julia, Morgan Freeman also brilliantly channelled the former President.  If you want to be inspired and have hope in humanity, this is a movie for you.  I remember not so long ago I responded to a Facebook poll, “Would I want a Christian as President”.   Yes, I am Canadian but I had to indulge. I did respond yes(my friends had some aggressively passionate statements) but I had something to say in addition to the poll in which I asked, “How about a President who ACTUALLY LIVES and PRACTICES the Christian life and philosophy as opposed to one who merely says and preaches it?” It was too bad that Nelson Mandela was not his 40s and can be easily shipped to  United States to be president (and change that nativist bit about strictly born in the states to qualify). As President of South Africa, here was a man who practiced what he preached and recognized that change starts from the top. In the movie you will see how President Mandella brings together white Afrikaaners and Blacks to work together in being his presidential bodyguards (a lot of tension here but all works out). He takes a pay cut in salary (Toronto City Council are you listening? Mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi has his heart in the right place!) and most important of all he fights for national unity for backing up a fledging rugby team called the Springboks, led by captain Francois Pienaar (played by Matt Damon) all the way to the World Rugby Cup which was held in South Africa in which the team won against New Zealand 15-12. It also shows that President Mandela, the great philosophical and spiritual giant, as he was, did have his own problems to wrestle with which included his own family in which one the members objected to his support of a mainly white rugby team to bring unity to a country that was torn apart by apartheid but in the end this political and human calculation he originated made all South Africans feel proud of their country. Morgan Freeman richly deserves the Oscar for Best Actor in illustrating this inspirational man and his dream.