There is nothing like the joy of sport to bring people together. If only President Bush and Osama Bin Laden could play a little one on one, we wouldn’t have any more folks getting blown up in the Middle East. At least, that’s what Hollywood feeds us in movies like Remember the Titans. Now it looks like Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood will use sports to stamp out the after effects of apartheid in the movie The Human Factor.
Variety reports that Eastwood may direct a movie based on the book, "The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World” by John Carlin. The book (and presumably the movie) deals with the impact of the 1995 Rugby World Cup on post-apartheid race relations in host country, South Africa. Freeman will play Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon is in discussions to play the captain of the South African team competing in the tournament.
As a big Eastwood fan, I’d like to see this movie do well, but I’m a little skeptical. I wasn’t one of the millions who saw Million Dollar Baby as anything more than a simplistic, boring, tear-jerker and Flags of our Fathers came across as haphazard and unfocused. Clint seems to be sliding a bit and this set-up could set his worst instincts free, as was the case in Million Dollar Baby. Still, getting Freeman and Damon in a movie is never a really bad idea and there are certainly going to be some Rocky moments to swell the heart. Plus, isn’t it time for a really good rugby movie?
