Invictus

I recently watched this movie and came away more impressed than I thought i would be. I also left the theater with the knowledge that I knew nothing about rugby and next to nothing about Nelson Mandela. The later I plan to fix, the first one...well *shrug*. I did learn it is quite an interesting game, but this movie holds more, it encapsulates a moment in South Africa's history when Governments, leadership, and power was changing hands. It could have gone very badly for the whole country if people's voices were not heard in this new democracy, if peoples voices were thought to be ignored because of their race.I recommend seeing it.






The title of the movie is actually a poem, one that's rhythm and meter stuck in my head long after the movie was over. I have included it here for you.


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.

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.

William Ernest Henley