This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Engli! sh ( Dolby DTS 5.1 ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Behind the scenes, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Devised by committee, plotted by machine and acted on cruise control, "Forever Strong" stages an all-too-familiar teenage morality play on the churned earth of a high school rugby field in Salt Lake City. For Rick Penning (Sean Faris), that field is his arena to vent against a spineless mother (Julie Warner) and an angry coach and father (Neal McDonough). A belligerent player and all-round pill, Rick is in dire need of an attitude intervention. So when the time-honored convergence of beer, convertible and hot chick lands him in juvie, he is on the road to learning more than just how to clean a toilet and smuggle Vicodin. An After School Special that somehow sneaked into the multiplex, "Forever Strong" operates at the subbasement level of sports as therapy, smashing bodies and jerking tears at ri! gidly timed intervals. As Rick, under the moral tutelage of Co! ach Larr y Gelwix (Gary Cole) and his former rivals, learns to replace drinking, drugs and women with prayer circles, community service and Maori chants, the virility of the scrum becomes a spiritual rite of passage. ...Forever StrongIn six years of coaching, Grant Taylor has never led his Shiloh Eagles to a winning season. After learning that he and his wife Brooke face infertility, Grant discovers that a group of fathers are secretly organizing to have him dismissed as head coach. Devastated by his circumstances, he cries out to God in desperation. When Grant receives a message from an unexpected visitor, he searches for a stronger purpose for his football team. He dares to challenge his players to believe God for the impossible on and off the field. When faced with unbelievable odds, the Eagles must step up to their greatest test of strength and courage.What does Nelson Mandela do after becoming president of South Africa? He rejects revenge, forgives oppressors who jailed him 27 y! ears for his fight against apartheid and finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place: the rugby field. Clint Eastwood (named 2009's Best Director by the National Board of Review) directs an uplifting film about a team and a people inspired to greatness. Morgan Freeman (NBR's Best Actor Award winner and Oscar nominee for this role) is Mandela, who asks the national rugby team captain (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Matt Damon) and his squad to do the impossible and win the World Cup. Prepare to be moved--and thrilled.After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could've easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood's determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman in a performance of sly charm) took to prevent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team c! ould provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by Fr! ançois Pienaar (an unbelievably buff Matt Damon), the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela's newly integrated security detail, a combination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their ideological differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand's All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham's script takes its title, Latin for "unconquerable," from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during the 27 years he spent in prison. If Damon's accent is more convincing, Freeman serves as the film's heart--and as a timely reminder that recon! ciliation is never easy, but that it will always trump revenge. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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