Forrest Whitaker, this is the last time you fool me into seeing a movie just cuz you're in it.

[gordonzola]

So, I watched "The Last King of Scotland" last night. What an awful movie. What the hell was I thinking?

All the cliches were in place. Someplace in Africa is important because it's being seen through white eyes: check. Africans doing strange and wonderful things as seen through the oversaturation of color: yup. Africans doing outrageously cruel and crazy-violent things without remorse: why make a movie about Africa without that? One does not need to be an apologist for Idi Amin to hope for a little more context and history.

I admit I should have known better. I remember some positive review by some reviewer I liked and just put it in the to-see pile in my head. I also thought it was going to be a movie version of a true story, not the dramatization of a story inspired by an interpretation of a reflection of actual events which it turned out to be.

This is important only because while I expect non-fiction accounts to be self-serving, I also expect them to, if only to forestall criticism, be linked to a historical timeline and not make up things that are purely absurd. Not in this film, that's for sure!

Amin is so childlike (or insane) that just because some adventurist white doctor dude puts a splint on his injured wrist, he decides to let him implement policy for the entire post-coup nation. Those African tyrants sure are wacky! The person the book was originally based on at least was someone who Amin had known or known of for years since he was living in Uganda and employed by the English Army. One assumes that person had seen and done some hard things. In the movie the protagonist is some confused almost-hippie, almost do-gooder fresh out of med school who went to Uganda to escape his father issues. I mean Christ, Amin may have been evil but since he managed to rise from rural poverty to leader of a country, at least give him some credit for cunning.

Instead Amin constantly calls for counsel with someone who has the real life experience of an inner-city 8 year old. The movie tries to hedge its racism by getting a sympathetic Ugandan character to tell the white dude to go back to the West. Not because he hasn't done horrible things by aiding Amin, but because he's white so people will listen. True enough. But what happens when Whitey returns and makes the story all about his own inner conflict and how he's suffered? He also forgets to mention why all the Brits were there in the first place. Working on their tans?

Plus, his "escape" (the real person ended up in post-Amin jail) is the most absurd thing I have ever seen in a movie. More absurd than Bruce Willis's duct-taped holster in "Die Hard", more absurd than the flying bike in "ET", more absurd than the just-like-chickens scene in "Eraserhead".

In short, this movie made "Blood Diamond" seem complex, subtle and politically right-on. That is not a recommendation for Blood Diamond.

Comments

[wolodymyr.livejournal.com]

Part of the tremendous joy and relief of Jackie Chan's Drunken Master II was how the white guys were totally "them" and bad. Similarly, Black Robe, where the white guys were just crazy and culturally irrelevant but unfortunately too powerful to be ignored.

I admit I was along for the ride of a lot of Last...Scotland, before we walked out, and it's great to be reminded by your review of exactly what I'd been ignoring along that way.

[princessrugger.livejournal.com]

yep, pretty much.

i was mostly overwhelmed with the "OMG, WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT THIS WHITE GUY THINKS?!" factor, but the rest of your points are dead-on too.

this will not, however, stop me from drawing a big glittery heart around forrest whitaker.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

It's true. I love him. Why does he choose to hurt me like this?

[dairryiere.livejournal.com]

I love him too. It's too bad he's in another stinker.

WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT THIS WHITE GUY...anything

[jactitation.livejournal.com]

I definitely had problems with the ending because I was all like, Will he live? Will he die? Could I even possibly care a little? No, I could not.

Okay, wrong. I kind of wanted him to die a slow painful death as recompense for taking two hours of my life away. But we were supposed to want him to fly away, and so there was no suspense left, despite the DUM DUM DUM DUM DA DUM music.

[walktheplank.livejournal.com]

In short, this movie made "Blood Diamond" seem complex, subtle and politically right-on.

!!!

(Speaking of "Blood Diamond," whatever happened to that movie about armed resistance to Apartheid? The one directed by Joe Slovo's son, and starring Tim Robbins as a Boer national security agent/torturer? I saw one preview for it, just before "Blood Diamond" came out, and I remember thinking to myself: "This'll never fly in the wake of 9/11," and sure enough, it never hit the local theaters.)

[(Anonymous)]

It's on DVD. It was OK - the best scenes were the ones where the revolutionaries are hanging out, getting in shape, etc. I think that aspect was fairly historically accurate, probably because of the Slovos' involvement.

Tim Robbins was OK in it. I guess it takes a really special actor to play someone as evil as the (composite) South African police officer he portrayed. I liked Derek Luke too. His character was suitably complex.

Still, the movie didn't quite gel for me.

Last King of Scotland sucked too. G, you forgot to mention the STUPID HORRIBLE EMBARRASING plot line about young hot Scotsman getting it on with Mrs. Amin. Pu-leeze!

(Ex-LJer felicks)

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yeah, there were Slovos all over that film. the ending was a total cop-out though.

and there was much I didn't write about in the Last King. Too much bad! Slit mentioned the teaching-the-Africans-to-fart bonding scene which I wish I had used for the title of my post.

[smileserena.livejournal.com]

Wow, interesting.

I understand what you are saying about cliches but if you are making a film about Idi Amin, how is it possible to not portray remorseless violence? I actually thought the violence was quite measured and could have been much more prolific. I wouldn't want filmmakers restricted by liberalist concerns and so fail to depict violence for fear of being described as racist, while acknowledging that debates about racism in movies is absolutely vital.

I also thought the white Dr guy was exposed as ridiculously naive and egotistical and had little to no sympathy with him. I felt that was deliberate.

[slit.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't want filmmakers restricted by liberalist concerns and so fail to depict violence for fear of being described as racist

Me neither, but I would hope they'd give the violence some context. When they don't -- and this this really super extremely annoyingly common, hence a critique that goes above and beyond the specifics of this particular film -- it makes Africans (as gordon says) seem child-like. That's where the racism is. Not in making Idi Amin look "bad" or "mean" or "violent." Of course he should be shown to be all those things. Just not "dumb."

I also thought the white Dr guy was exposed as ridiculously naive and egotistical and had little to no sympathy with him. I felt that was deliberate.

It was and that's the problem. The British are portrayed as naive and well-meaning but oops! caught up by circumstances, rather than calculating.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Slit summed up the main point I wanted to make, but it's also interesting that the only really harsh violence in the film affects the Scot. The mutilated body of his lover is the hardest moment to watch. Before that it's all off screen. Once again, only if violence affects the white person, does it really matter.

[jenlight.livejournal.com]

only if violence affects the white person, does it really matter.

So totally exactly.

I watched the entire movie despite myself.

I mean, I sort of expected it, but the "Euro-centric white guy saves the savages from themselves" thing was over the top. I can't even bother. It sucked.

[ammonoid.livejournal.com]

Dear god, Blood Diamond was awful.

I didn't want to see the Last King of Scotland because I couldn't see anything good coming out of telling Idi Amin's story. :/

[nunofthat.livejournal.com]

But did you not enjoy the bagpipes-in-Uganda schtick played for comic relief? :P

When this came out, I was doing a lot of sermonizing on the unholy trinity of Last King of Scotland, Blood Diamond and the Constant Gardener -- their shortcomings as individual films as well as what it means when we take these as a whole, problems you've listed pretty thoroughly here. And everybody was all shocked and was like, oh, I hadn't thought of that, and then they ignored the point and it left me feeling completely demoralized. Thank you, Hollywood!

lemme get this straight

[bebopmonkey.livejournal.com]

so... you liked it?

[slit.livejournal.com]

Amin is so childlike (or insane) that just because some adventurist white doctor dude puts a splint on his injured wrist, he decides to let him implement policy for the entire post-coup nation. Those African tyrants sure are wacky!

Don't forget the part where he helps him fart so now they're BFF and everything and wear each other's lockets around their necks. My favorite thing about Africa and Asia is that you can spin a globe and point your finger on any given country and then go there and the president will make you his grand vizier because you have a charming offbeat sense of humor. I love that so much. That reminds me I should renew my passport, I've been meaning to take over Mozambique.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Good choice. That place hasn't been the same since South Africa offed Samora Michel.

[rednfiery.livejournal.com]

thank you for this. i'd been thinking of renting it, but have now decided to wait for it to be on regular ol' cable tv.

re: african cinema

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgadjigo/sembene1.html

look, there are some great african movies, MADE BY AFRICANS, if you will look around a bit. i live in los angeles, and there is a panafrican film festival here, but anyone ANYWHERE with decent internet access can check out the internet movie database and use search engines and youtube and netflix to find something other than the packaged crap that is handed down to us all as if were some special gift.

you eat cheeses that are carefully chosen. the music that you like is from a genre, time and place that you are highly specific about. why shouldn't movies you watch be treated with the same care?

no excuses.

the filmmaker in the link above, ousmane sembene, was senegalese, which is only a small part of africa, of course. start with Camp de Thiaroye, maybe. i think that you might find it a richer and more human experience.

dk

ps. i am a technician and have nothing to do with the movie business.

skin deep

[animikwaan.livejournal.com]

i think reading the book would have helped. the author had a hand in the screenplay, and of course, several characters had to be combined into a few for the purposes of the film... as well as the grand exit, which, in the book was used as a validating turning point for the steadily, creeping position amin had in the doctor's mind.

and actually, the book thrilled me in some ways. a lot of important race politics happen on the surface level. but, a slightly different voice and perspective arrives in the book as the protagonist is scottish, not english -- albeit, the author is english, blue-collar, but english. and while he is visibly white, it becomes clear that he is not a privileged white person. this becomes really important laying a foundation for amin's perceived insanity to the white english who don't understand his angry black/african responses to things, and also his audacity. this comes up time and time again in the book. yes, amin is crazy, but he's also righteously responding to how he's being treated.

some other things: in the book, the protagonist is not such a hippie out to sow his wild oats with hot, african, exotified bootie, like so many accusations of peace corp-niks.

anyway, i gots some more to say... but, for now, i will say the book exalts this movie. the movie is so obviously hollywoodized, that, well, i knew that going in, it was what i expected, but i still found some nuances i was looking for, and a really excellent performance by forrest...

http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1298/foden/interview.html

[loolica.livejournal.com]

Scotland is one of the most loathsome films I've seen in some time. My prevailing thought throughout the whole film was, OHMYGOD WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE WHITE MAN? Never mind the nation in terror, the poor hippie is having a rough time.

The fact that it masquerades as non-fiction is particularly noxious. Which is what I said here. And I am always repelled by the portrayal of people who have committed great injustices and violence as just crazy or simple. Oh those wacky dictators, with no context or real examination of the events and circumstances that facilitate those regimes.

Totally toxic!

[jamie-miller.livejournal.com]

Okay everybody ... don't take this the wrong way ... but am I the only person who could tell from the previews that this film was going to be maximum crap, and therefore ignored it?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I never saw the trailer, I now wish I had!

there were three factors for me in wanting to see it: 1. I love Forrest Whitaker 2. some reviewer that I like (I want to say Stuart Klawans buut I don't want to sully his name if it's not true) recommended it highly. 3. I thought it was at least based on a non-fiction work.

[uke.livejournal.com]

Forrest Whitaker must have been actually insane since agreeing to do Battlefield Earth. I haven't looked at him the same way since.

[gismonda.livejournal.com]

El Vez: Right on!