Precious Invictus.

A few days ago, I was privileged to see the movie, Invictus. I consider it a privilege because it’s a fresh breath of air—the type that comes in the heels of a nasty fart.

About a month earlier, I had seen a much more different movie titled Precious. Based on the novel Push, it’s the story of a Harlem teenager who, on the one hand, goes through a harrowing experience in the hands of her parents and, on the other hand, gets taunted for the sad experience by the society at large. As charity begins at home, so does abuse for the character of Precious. This hapless teenager is verbally, physically and sexually abused by her biological parents. As part of the consequences of all these abuses, Precious gets pregnant and has 2 kids by her father. Anything that can nauseatingly go wrong in a dysfunctional household goes wrong in Precious.

Usually, I don’t read reviews until I see a movie and then form my personal opinion. It was the same with Precious. I refused to read the many reviews of this movie until I saw it. Interestingly, most of the reviewers were like Hollywood make-up artists. They would start with the acceptance of the dark, stark reality of the movie but end up with desperate attempts to make it attractive. One such reviewer (Eric D. Snider) wrote, among other things, “the premise of “Precious” is so unsettling and bleak that no one would blame you if you didn’t want to see it:… ” The reviewer then went on to conclude “But if you do see it, you’ll find that it’s compelling and artistic, punctuated with warm humor and masterful performances…”

However, Sean Patrick Kernan, one of the few reviewers that spoke something akin to the way I felt about the movie wrote “The last time I had a feeling like this was after watching the 9/11 movie “United 93.” That film left me with a mixture of awe and emptiness… “Precious” left me with that same empty sadness. Do I appreciate aspects of the film? Yes, the acting in “Precious” is top notch. The problem is an overwhelming sadness and sense of despair that suffocates while the movie plays and lingers afterward.”

Precious, in my mind, only gives a viewer the opportunity to see all that is gory, incestuous, distasteful, painful, shameful and sad in human perversion. And except for the brief flash of intermittent dreams that never materialize, the movie provides only a faint…very faint glimmer of hope, triumph and emancipation from an abyss of despair and degradation. It’s terribly sad that a movie that runs for 1hr 49min‎‎ cannot devote at least, 25 minutes to showcase the battered character’s eventual triumph and accomplishments.

Watching this other movie, Invictus, a few days ago however turned out to be an emotional reward for my enduring the tragedy in Precious. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, among others, this is an inspiring and motivating true story of how a newly elected President Nelson Mandela (Freeman) of South Africa deftly employed the 1995 rugby World Cup Championship to rally and unite a divided nation in the aftermath of an apartheid era.

Just like Precious, Invictus was adapted from a book. And very much like the makers of Precious, those who made Invictus could have ended the movie at the pathetic scene where the white South Africans were lamenting their woes after losing power to the black majority whose immediate mission was vengeance.

But unlike Precious…fortunately, Invictus paints a total picture of human triumphs over a period of hardships, struggles and despairs. It rewards the audience with a good, exhilarating feeling of all is good that ends well even after an emotional trip into the bad and the ugly in human travails. The great inspiring movie could also have been titled Precious Invictus. It’s a precious movie with a lead character that readily reminds one of Huge Walpole who, in his book Fortitude (1913), said it’s not the life that matters but the courage you bring into it…blessed be all sorrows, pains and anguish for out of them comes the making of a man…”