Day 8

I've watched 3 inspirational movies recently- Invictus, Goal!, and The Shawshank Redemption.

Invictus- The film tells the true story of how President Nelson Mandela, then newly elected, united Africa which was then racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

Goal- A cinderella like story, except that the lead is a guy. This guy, Santiago Munez, leaves home to chase his dream of becoming a professional soccer player after being discovered by a 'scout' that he really owes big time for getting him a tryout with Newcastle. The guy finally makes it to be in the main team.

The Shawshank Redemption- The most remarkable of all 3 movies. I've never heard of this movie before TL and XC recommended it as a must-watch. Like Invictus, this film starred Morgan Freeman. Although he was not the protagonist, the story was told from point of view and it had a very WONDERFUL commentary. It was a guy who was wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife. He spent 20 years in prison, changing the workings and people inside it. There were many issues that the film visited- institutionalism of inmates, homosexuality, narcissism, friendship, money laundering at the top, just to name a few. My favourite scene was where Andy Dufresne was being dangled over the ledge by the Captain and he bargained for not just his life but also for '2 pints of cold beer for each of his co-workers'.

Red: [narrating] And that's how it came to pass that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of forty-nine wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning drinking icy cold, Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.

Red: [narrating] You could argue he'd done it to curry favor with the guards. Or, maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again, if only for a short while.

It is how people handle such tricky situations that speak volumes of them. This guy was cool and calm, and he put his 'co-workers' before himself. Most impressive. He was also determined that he dug a hole out of prison by himself.

Interestingly, the lead characters of all 3 films had some poem/ song/ quote that motivates them. I couldn't catch the ones from Goal! and Shawshank, but here's the one from Invictus:

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