[MoMo]

Tonight my wife and I went to see a new movie with the engaging title:fficeffice" />>>
>>
" The Last King of Scotland "

>>
>>
This new movie has been getting a lot of positive hype, so I decided, what the hell! I was curious about the movie and the setting. 1970s Africa. A crazy dictator. Britain and America fuelling a coup. Result-hundreds of thousands slaughtered! Sound familiar? Could this movie cast some belated light on today's world mismanagement?

>>

In life we reap as we sow. In " The Last King of Scotland ", directed by Kevin MacDonald, we have the story of a young Scottish doctor who, by accident, becomes the personal physician and " adviser " to Ugandan president Idi Amin.

The movie is based on a highly fictionalised version of events in the 70s.

The young doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, has come to Uganda to seek adventure (and also to do some good in the world while he is there) by working in a bush charity clinic. On the way to the bush clinic, he passes several T72s and countless Land Rovers covered with Ugandan soldiers brandishing F.N. rifles and cheering madly. " It is a great day for Uganda," he is told by a young Ugandan woman: Amin is in and Milton Obote is out!

Garrigan becomes friendly with a young African woman while travelling on the bus to the interior. To celebrate what is obviously a gala day, Garrigan and the young woman jump into bed when they reach their destination and confirm solid African/U.K. relations.

On his arrival, the country's president, Milton Obote, has just been overthrown in a coup by the army's chief of staff, General Idi Amin, played by Forest Whitaker. Amin has declared himself president.

At the clinic, he meets Sarah, the wife of the doctor who runs the place, and he starts to make overtures to her. ( he really is a bit of a woose! ) You begin to get a queasy feeling in your stomach at this juncture.


When Amin visits the countryside nearby, he has an accident and Garrigan is on the spot to give first aid. When Amin finds out that Garrigan is Scottish he declares that he loves Scotland and loves the people.

A few days later, Garrigan is offered the job of Presidential Doctor. This is when you really start to feel sick in your gut. This is when Garrigan loses his soul for a mess of potage! Instead of waving farewell to Amin, Garrigan is seduced by the opulent lifestyle of the dictator. After all, it was the 70s and in the 70s, everyone pointed to themselves and said, I'm going to have a good time!"

For a while, things seem to be going well for Garrigan; Amin says he thinks of him like a son, and that Garrigan is his " closest adviser ". It doesn't take long for the audience to suss that Amin is off his trolley and that if " I were Garrigan, then I would get the hell out of there real quick!

Amin's quixotic behaviour, together with the coterie of psychopaths, hit- men and gophers all tell Amin that he is God's answer to all the ills of Africa. Not one person can tell him the truth to his face.

Sounds familiar? Yes, the template for Sadam!

Garrigan, at first, thinks that the President is an African patriot and that he has the power to transform his country into an African utopia. He even scoffs at the spooks from the British Embassy who wish to recruit and control him in order to use him to influence Amin. Garrigan tells the Consulate's spy to ****-off, feeling that he has common cause with Amin. At this point we learn that Obote, who had communist leanings ( opportunistic ) had been replaced by Amin because the Brits had engineered the coup! Sound familiar? Who bankrolled Sadam?


After several telling incidents Garrigan becomes aware that all is not well with Amin. His passport is taken from him. He realises that a chance remark that he has made about one of Amin's advisors has resulted in the man's disappearance. At this point in the story you are yelling, inwardly, " GET OUT, NOW! "

No. He stays. Worse, he begins an affair with Amin's wife number three, Kay. Bad move, Garrigan!

This is just the stupidest thing that you can imagine any person doing in Amin's Uganda.

As things roll towards a sticky end, Whitaker's Amin becomes compelling viewing for the audience. He is Amin! All his mannerisms and facial expressions convince you that you are watching the real deal, not an actor! This is why the menace is real and this is why you cringe every time that Garrigan indulges in another stupid piece of conceit and self-deception.

Amin is represented as a product of British Army training. His stint in The King's African Rifles has taught him that power grows from the barrel of a gun. It has also left him with a contempt for the old colonial power.

Instead of becoming the father of his country, as he likes to project himself, he becomes responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of his countrymen.

In the end Amin finds out about Garrigan and his wife. She ends up dead on a slab with the pieces of her anatomy rearranged in a sickening fashion while her relatives look on and grieve. Garrigan just throws up. We all knew that it would come to this...the question is, why didn't he?

I guessed the ending. Well, kind of. When we think of the major international event that took place in Uganda, it wasn't hard. I won't reveal what happens because this is a new movie.

I guess, to the filmmakers, that Garrigan is a cipher for all us ignorant westerners. Our governments meddle in geo-politics or neo-colonialist adventures without realising what the consequences are going to be for the peoples of the region. Bloodbaths ensue and we have to wail and weep that we thought that we were doing good. After all, we're the good guys!

Allegory? Yes. Lesson? Too late! Entertaining? Yes, I should say so! My guess is that Whiteker will scoop the next best actor Oscar for his performance. The movie won't get best film! The plot is too flawed for that and it's not that great a movie.

I must add a line about Kevin MacDonald's direction : he uses Whitaker's face and bulk to effect. In many shots Whitaker is in extreme close-up while the other half of the frame is taken up by another character in medium shot. The figure of Amin thus dominates the frame and overpowers the other characters. In fact, Amin dominates in a cloying and suffocating fashion that is intended to intimidate the viewer and evoke a sickening reaction.

The editing of the movie is well handled. In effect the editing moves the film along at an acceptable pace, given the weight of the script/plot. I feel that some elements of the plot could have safely been left to the audience's imagination and a more accomplished scriptwriter would have foreseen this.

Where we are subjected to the graphic horrors of Amin's actions, the editing comes into its own and we are spared the experience of extended shots of the bodies piling up. Instead, close cutting gives us fleeting glimpses of the horrors in a montage of the dreadful consequences of Amin's brand of ethnic cleansing. The most telling sequence is when we build up to the shot of Kay's dismembered corpse. This sequence is skilfully managed for we see Garrigan descend into the hell of a hospital basement. We pass all the weeping and keening relatives. The shot cranes down as Garrigan goes down the basement steps and follows his tortured form as it faces up to what he is partly responsible for. The body of Kay shot is therefore a reveal shot which is more horrible than we have been anticipating. Like Garrigan, we want to run away and hide.

The horrors, which have been withheld from Garrigan and the audience, pile up like Macbeth's birthday presents.

Everyone should see this movie for the power of Whitaker's Amin and the obvious message : be careful whom you sponsor for their bloody mismanagement may fall to your account one day.



cheers,

MoMo


>> >>

[Cardinal]

Although I'm not able to provide eloquent, detailed and insightful reviews such as MoMo (I lack the patience ), I would strongly recommend Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage - an excellent movie that realistically portrays the warlord phenomenon plaguing parts of Africa.

[Aircrafty]

'Lord of War' was an ok movie, but 'Windtalkers' was better imo.

[STARMAN 352ND]

I just got done watching a movie called "The Great Raid" with James Franco and Joeseph Fiennes.
It's a true story of the most triumphant rescue mission in U.S. Military history.
As WWII rages the elite 6th Ranger Battalion is given a mission of heroic proportions:Push 30 miles behind enemy lines and liberate over 500 American POW's.
This gripping big screen hit captures a moment in time when men of honor become soldiers of destiny.
Highly Recommened.
JP

[LzyBns]

Hey MoMo. I came across this list of aviation movies , in case we missed one......Military Aviation Movie List

[SKUNKY]

Originally Posted by Aircrafty

Btw, is George pointing to his recent lobotomy scar in your avatar pic?

Howdy....it's like..stra-tee-gery....there's all these folks,...mission accomplished, ya see..fool me twice..., yeah.....

[Aircrafty]

Originally Posted by SKUNKY

Howdy....it's like..stra-tee-gery....there's all these folks,...mission accomplished, ya see..fool me twice..., yeah.....

LOL Hi Skunky, so how is George going popularity wise with the US people?

I can't see our present Prime Minister survivng another election.

[MoMo]

Thanks for the aviation movie list/link, Lazybones. I'll get back to that and study it in some detail. I'll try to figure out what percetage I've seen.

I can't remember " The Great Raid", Starman. I'll look out for it. I just got hold of " The Wind and the Lion" which was reommended. I'll post a review when I've seen it.

I haven't seen " Lord of War", Cardinal, but I'm gonna! I'll get a copy next week. I see that it is now being discounted.

I did see " Windtalkers", Aircrafty. I thought that it was a good movie, but I thought that some of the action sequences were mishandled. Otherwise a very good movie which cast light on a very obscure, but vital, contribution to the war effort by Native Americans. In British Highland regiments radio operators could speak in plain language in Gaelic. No one, except other Gaelic speakers, knew what the hell they were saying because they spoke in their own, local dialect of Gaelic. Even Gaelic speakers from other parts of the Scottish Highlands and Islands had difficulties figuring out what Gaelic speakers from the other side of the country were saying.

MoMo

[Aircrafty]

Originally Posted by MoMo

T
I did see " Windtalkers", Aircrafty. I thought that it was a good movie, but I thought that some of the action sequences were mishandled. Otherwise a very good movie which cast light on a very obscure, but vital, contribution to the war effort by Native Americans.
MoMo

MoMo, in what way did you think the action sequences were mishandled? Imo it had some convincing action, except for some of the cgi stuff.

[MoMo]

Dear Aircrafty,

I seem to recall taking exception to an action sequence near the end when the U.S. Marines charge the Japanese positions in what seems to resemble a Kamakazi surge forward. This results in a running battle as the Japanese are pushed back. To me, it seemed more like a cavalry charge than an infantry move forward. Everyone is moving forward at breakneck speed and no-one is looking for position or using standard infantry company tactics to find position then cover a move forward by a small group which in turn finds the next position from which to cover a move from the rearmost group.

I saw the movie when it came out and I'll watch it again in a couple of months to see if I remember well.

I'm just picky, Aircrafty. If something strikes me as anachronistic or out of character, generally, it disturbs my enjoyment.

I'll check the movie out in a month or so and see if I was being too critical.

cheers,

MoMo