Blog #2: Invictus

Invictus is an excellent Clint Eastwood movie telling the story of South Africa uniting around the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

The film relates to community development primarily with how Nelson Mandela and the captain Francois unite the country together by using Rugby as it's vehicle to overcome existing issues in the country; most notably, apartheid. By getting the South African black citizens to cheer for the white South African team, the country united to overcome these issues.

Nelson Mandela greets captain Francois

This is a great example of community development because Nelson Mandela was able to unite the entire community of South Africa into one level nation of people and destroy the racial discrepancies. Although the team only had one black member, they were still able to get the support of their country by winning games. Playing at home didn’t hurt their chances either.

Fighting Aparthied

The use of sport is a very powerful tool in connecting people and allowing communities to develop. Sport can connect people in ways that no other vehicle can and because of this, Nelson Mandela chose to use the Rugby World Cup to connect his country.

I had seen this film several times prior to this assignment and was blown away the first time I saw it at how powerful sport can be in uniting people together. It was partly this reason that greatly influenced my decision to join the sport and rec program at Mount Royal. Sport is one of my favourite things because of how powerful it can be.

Sport unifies people in no other way possible. The most effective way is at the national level. When teams win, they gather support. Another very good example of the unification of people was the 2004 Stanley Cup Run for the Calgary Flames. By winning and going deep into the tournament, they were able to gather the support of the whole city and connect people together.