What does Clint Eastwood have in common with Cape Town, South African politics and rugby?
Posted on March 10th, 2009 by Richard Catto 3,738 views
Clint Eastwood in Cape Town to direct “The Human Factor”
Ordinarily, one would say, “not much”, but Clint Eastwood, the legendary American actor and movie director is in Cape Town to direct a movie based on John Carlin’s 2008 book called “Playing the Enemy”.
The book is about the political coup Nelson Mandela scored when he united the fledgling new South African nation behind the 1995 Springbok Rugby World Cup victory. Mandela cleverly engineered a détente between General Constand Viljoen, then leader of a vociferous white Afrikaner movement which threatened civil war, and the ANC hawks which wanted nothing to do with the white Afrikaner dominated South African rugby world, as it was at that time. Mandela also persuaded the ANC hawks to allow the rugby world to retain the widely hated Springbok emblem.
Morgan Freeman purchased the movie rights to the book, and he is set to play Nelson Mandela opposite Matt Damon who will play Francois Pienaar, who was captain of the all white Springbok squad which won the 1995 World Cup.
Carlin’s book rejects the New Zealand conspiracy theory that their food was deliberately poisoned on the day of the final, but Carlin does allow in a comment made by a French player, Abdelatif Benazzi, whose try would have beaten the Springboks in the semi-final had it been allowed. At the final, Benazzi commented, “I knew, that something more important was happening than victory or defeat in a game of rugby.” Indeed it was.
Read the full The Independent Books review of John Carlin’s Book, “Playing the Enemy”.
Purchase and read John Carlin’s interesting book for yourself:
Tags: Clint Eastwood, John Carlin, Playing the Enemy
Filed under Celebrities |
One Response to “What does Clint Eastwood have in common with Cape Town, South African politics and rugby?”
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caroline Says:
April 3rd, 2009 at 20:14Things never change just get more and more everyone for themselfs. I really wish the world will first live in South africa grow up there then make statements stop and think about everything around you ? are you true?
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