The Last King Of Scotland

I saw this film today. I think it was an excellent film, for what it is. That is, it is another Africa through the eyes of a white foreigner movie. I will say that I was very impressed with Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Idi Amin. I did not appreciate nor think it was necessary to darken him up in some of the scenes the way that they did. For those unfamiliar with Idi Amin, he was a very dark "rotund" African. Mr. Whitaker fits the physical role very well and I don't think that the extra blackening cream as was done in the plane hangar scene was necessary. It was also done very badly as you could see his true complexion on his nose. I will guess that the makeup artist was not black (though I won't put money on that).

Since the film was just as much if not more about the white man in Uganda than about Amin, the opportunity to understand Amin was lost. There is a scene where Amin discusses his childhood being a servant boy which lasts maybe a minute. I would have liked to have had the movie start from these early events in his life leading up to where the movie left off. Instead the movie begins just when Amin has taken over from Obote. Thus while we are given the expected arch of "promises" to "Atrocities" of the African big man. we are only given glimpses into what made Amin even possible. For example, we are told in a scene that Amin is the work of the British and that he was, at that point in the movie, doing a fine job. In another scene Amin briefly mentions his time in Kenya. but we are not made to know, if we didn't already, what exactly he was doing in Kenya. How do we know that Amin was simply paranoid when he went on his killing sprees? Given that he himself came to power via a coup why would he not be fearful of the same happening to him? Similarly, since he was in Kenya brualizing the Mau Mau, then can we simply say that Amin was just evil, and that his evil was not informed by the military environment he was in that devalued black life? Exploring these themes would help us to understand what motivate the "good intentioned" coup maker into a killing regime as well as explore the complicity of other parties in this. Again, Amin was illiterate, so he was, in my opinion, very subject to influence of people who had their own agendas.

If one is paying attention one will also find hints of Amin's illiteracy.

One other problem I had with the film was the scene in which Amin discusses Africa as being the home of civilization and a quick reference to Black Power. Like my critique of Hotel Rwanda I did not appreciate how black power politics or the use of "afro-centric" ideology or imagery is casually thrown about by the villains of movies about Africa. I believe such things are done in an attempt to get the public to believe that such ideologies promote the actions taken by the villains in the movies.

Overall I would recommend this film to everyone interested in African history and politics and I think the film ought to be used as subject matter in a African history class for criticism and analysis.

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