Invictus

Invictus

This is a true story based on a movie that was based on a book. The movie was entitled Invictus which, was based on John Carlin's Book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. The movie starred Morgan Freeman as South African President Nelson Mandela together with Matt Damon as the rugby captain Francois Pienaar - Springboks being their team. This movie was directed by Clint Eastwood.

The movie took place in a newly reformed nation of South Africa some time in 1994. Nelson Mandela won the seat of presidency ending an almost five-decade regime of apartheid system - 1948 to 1994.

The movie began by depicting President Mandela's win, showing a joyous victory for the blacks and, fear by the whites. Francois Pienaar and his family was watching the TV proclaiming President Mandela as the newly elected president of the Democratic Republic of South Africa. Francois' father expressed regret and fear that they have a black president, fearing reprisal by the black south africans. The following day, President Mandela immediately reported for work and on his arrival he took notice of the white workers packing their belongings. He called them for a meeting and told them that if they wanted to stay to work for their nation, their nation would appreciate it - implying that it's not a matter of race to determine who has the right to work for the office of the president. This was one of President Mandela's challenges, to unite a nation. This was his first Mandate, though it wasn't stated clear in the movie it definitely showed that to him nation building is colourless. The movie showed that in his doing so, he slightly abated the fear of the white workers but he didn't stop there.

Prior to his victory, President Mandela was a political prisoner and that was because he was anti-apartheid. But His belief and determination was never rooted in revenge but instead of forgiveness and reconciliation. Which is why when he finally became president he never mandated or ordered or in any implied that he will only work with people of colour same as his. In fact, he had ordered his black bodyguards to work with the previous president's bodyguards who were whites. Of course, as everybody can expect on his black bodyguards who was close with Mandela - whom they called Madiba - insisted that he cannot work with people that hated them and attempted to kill them. President Mandela quipped back saying "reconciliation starts here".

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

That wasn't the only thing that President Mandela encountered resistance from his idea of unity. In fact, one newspaper posted "He won the election, but can he rule a nation?" of which he said in a calm voice, "That's a legitimate question".

The movie also showed that the AFricans specific to the southern region loved soccer and rugby. They had Springboks which, became the apartheid regime's rugby team. The team was almost disbanded by a black-ruled sports commission, this commission came to be following Mandela's victory. They had ordered that Springboks be abolished for this was a representation of the oppression during the apartheid but before it could happen, one of President Mandela's supporters informed him of this premature decision. He rushed to the scene and spoke with them. He said, "this is not the time for petty revenge", and this happened to be one my favorite scenes in the movie.

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

What I may have written here isn't all true - this was movie based on a book based on a President's challenges and determination - that's because that isn't the story that I would mention to be true. This is my true story, a story that made me realize that meanings and hardships in life are always there. It is about me and my realization of what reconciliation and forgiveness is and how much I hungered for it as to hunger in giving it. They are considerably long words. In fact, it has letters more than "hate" and that's because "hate" is easy and while forgiveness isn't. It's never difficult to hate, ever heared of the quote "familiarity breeds contempt"? Hate is easily justified but for forgiveness to come, you have to exert it and I may try to explain what it is but I fear my words will never be enough. It is true to what he said, "forgiveness is such a powerful weapon". Although not many will come to realize the fullest of it, and you may not see it now but try not to forget it because someday you will need it's power.

However, you may wondering what Invictus means. It's a poem but literally it means unconquered, undefeated. This was the poem that gave President Mandela his much needed inspiration while he was in prison. Read it.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/invictus/

MMORPG

It's the acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games of which, I'm sure many have an idea of what it is. What it does? Is a whole lot of different things.

There are a lot of different flavors when it comes to MMORPG. From farming to entrepreneurship and violence. It's a varied world, from one brand to the other. There's so much in it and for this post I'm to cover 1 game as an example and I'll try to detail a few of my experiences.

I'll show you my Cabal world. This is a game hosted by E-Games and to start it off here are a few terms with their descriptions:

Adik - An addicted player of the game.

Character - The avatar or the player's character in the game.

Glory - This has to be the number one reason why I enjoyed playing the game. You can become just about anything but for purposes of particularity, you can be a bully. The game offers you a myriad of skills (you can call them talents), from healing to skills that bring destruction and pain to it's unfortunate target. Though the game is only virtual, the emotion isn't and that I think made the whole gaming industry (specific to online games) a hit. There's glory in it, you put in a few hours worth of effort into the game you'll see improvements, tangible ones that make your character more powerful. From being a newbie, you become someone with a capacity to destroy. Funny how we call ourselves human for being humane and yet cater to activities that encourage violence and blood. There's glory in the game because you can respect for being a killer or being a powerful destructor. You get to feel the immense talent to do whatever you can in the game.

Challenge - The game has it's limits including, itself being just a "game". However, a good player or an addicted one will try his best to work around the limits to achieve his goal. One good example is attempting to defeat a target or a monster that's difficult. Difficult in a sense that the monster's ability can actually kill the player. What the player does most often is to see what weaknesses this monster has. If the monster can be stunned he'll use a skill that does just that so he can buy himself some time to dealing more damage - the goal being to kill the monster. That of course, is a very simple portrayal of what a challenge is in the game. Eventually, a player would want to get more powerful items. Armor, swords and any equipment that may give the character more power and to achieve that, he needs the power of a group. There are monsters or targets that singly couldn't be handled and this is where a "party" or a group come into play. So technically, your group is now using all it's best to destroy the target. Large monsters of immense destructive power also holds a promise to give decent items to the lucky players that eventually kills it. On top of the challenges list, number 1 is to acquire items that will make your character powerful. Such challenges brings in a lot of frustration, items drop by random and there is even no certainty that such feat will provide you with anything good to use.

Brokeback Mountain

It was very controversial. Brokeback mountain won several awards of which, three of them were Oscars. The scenes were breathtaking and if I may say so, the scenery was epic. I loved and hated the movie. If you happen to wonder why I watched the movie and that's because a part of me relates to the characters.

I was very skeptical at how the movie would turn out. Before it was released, my friends were talking about it and they've read a lot of reviews. I never read any of it's reviews or comments from critics, I thought that I wanted to be surprised to be awed by it's story. Fortunately, no matter how blind you keep yourself from it, the plot was quite easy to guess - two gay guys, in love, trying to keep the relationship a secret for reasons that are obvious - and in life, those things can happen which, to me made it even more interesting. I'm a fan of scifi films, Star Trek and all the crap about things flying in space without using Petrol based products but this movie was an exemption. What really caught my attention, was Heath Ledger's performance and he played the character Ennis Del Mar. I'm not fan of his and I'm happy to say that I'm not a critic but how Heath played this cowboy whose everything in him and about him he tries to hide and mask. It was though, he was really the character. I wouldn't really know what word to use to describe such a splendid performance but if you do, go ahead and insert where appropriate. I don't know if most of you notice when actors play a part, there are performances that can really destroy a character whether they played it less than what's necessary or overdo the part but Heath played it just right.

What I loved and hated about this movie was how it played my emotions. Written well, and played well and with that there's not much you can do but immerse yourself, your character and it's emotions into the movie. It played mine so well, I couldn't recall how sad I was in feeling the movie and recalling the scenes and it's music, the words played up in my head like I was really in it. And up till now, I can still feel the same emotions that seems to wrench my heart with it's melancholy.

A great movie for those who can accept what's beyond norms and if our opinions differ you can always make your blog about it. I would have given it 2 thumbs up but I'd rather keep my thumbs were I need them - one on each of my hands.

Feel free to comment and I'd appreciate it. And as for our English 1 teacher Ms. Lynnie, I think this will be one educational trip I'll be taking in your class, blogging never seemed interesting to me but somehow your requirements changes the idea. Thank you.