Invictus

South Africa is a very strange place. This is the second movie that I have seen about South Africa after Mandela was elected. The other was Red Dust which is where I first heard about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Invictus was a very pleasant movie, relatively speaking. None of the brutality that you often find in many movies about Africa. It is a movie about politics, the power of television, and rugby. Rugby is kind of brutal. I know a little about soccer, my kids used to play it, and I've seen matches on TV. I've even played a few games myself, but I don't know much about Rugby. I mean, I've heard of it, but I had never seen it played. They play rugby in the movie and you get to see how it is played, right up close.

Professional sports is a very strange thing. People react to it as though it's important. Something about being human I supposed. Evidently we need some kind of conflict, either personal or vicarious.

While I was trying to remember the name of the other movie (Red Dust), I was out wandering around on the net and I came across a list of movies about Africa. I was surprised to find how many I had seen.