Clint Eastwood shows the change in the nation of South Africa in Invictus, using the Springboks as a vehicle. He starts the film with large amounts of separation, followed by the steady change in the middle of the movie, and finishing with the nation combined.
In the beginning of the film, Clint Eastwood shows how separated black and white people are and how they do not get along, due to the change of the government and the Springboks. Because of the change in government, Nelson Mandela’s staff started to pack their things up as if they were leaving their jobs, but Nelson Mandela stops them and says, ‘The past is the past, we look to the future now.’ Nelson Mandela has noticed the struggle between the two sides of the nation, and is willing to make a change. The nation is very separated at the beginning of the film, and Nelson Mandela thought rugby would be able to bring the two sides back together. To do this, Clint Eastwood made the start of the movie seem as if most South Africans did not like the Springboks and to make it seem like there would be some difficulty in bringing the nation together through the Springboks. Nelson Mandela said that, while he is in prison, he would cheer for any team who were versing the Springboks, encouraging the fact that South Africans did not like them. The Springboks were not liked at the beginning of the film because people thought that they still represented discrimination. An example of this happened during the film when the church is giving out some clothes to children. One child is handed a Springbok jersey but he turns it down and runs away, due to the chance of other children beating him up. After the child is gone, the ladies in the church say,
“Why won't he take it?” ‘If he wears it, the others will beat him up.’
“Because the Springboks are playing so