 |
The movie peers into the troubled African nation Uganda, it explores the turmoil and troubles surrounding the country's darkest recent period ... the Idi Amin regime. In 1970, a young Scottish doctor named Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) comes to Uganda around the time that a military coup puts General Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) into power. Garrigan tends to the dictator for a minor ailment, and Amin is impressed by the young Scottish doctor, and asks him to be his private physician . True violence only comes late, but when it arrives it’s stark and unrestrained, and becomes more and more apparent that this is not a film for the faint-hearted.
When I first watched this movie, it was after Forest Whitaker had won for best actor so I knew that would be great. I saw it once and thought that would be enough. I then watched the movie again and now own it. There are many amazing things about this movie, especially for those who were alive and remember Amin but the thing I found most incidiously clever (aside from Forest Whitaker's acting which leaves you breathless and on the edge of your seat) is the nonfiction device used to demonstrate Amin's personality...how he could turn on a dime, and what was smoldering underneath all the while he's wearing that childish grin. This nonfiction element is in form of a foreign doctor he befriends and slowly almost destroys. It is a subtle thing...you almost feel you've been taken in like the doctor, suckered in, even though you know the true Amin and what he's capable of. If you read other reviews, they may find fault with how the movie was done. I think it was sheer brilliance. There are many biographical/semibiographical movies that show in documentary form the person's life. Surely there is some of that in here - showing what was done to the people of Uganda during Amin's rule. But if you really, really want to see what Amin was like, Whitaker is the actor, and this is the movie.Read full review
Forest Whitaker is the main reason to see this film based on the real-life dictator, Idi Amin, known for having 300,000 Ugandans slaughtered. It delves deeply into the corruption of the soul that comes from too much power, money and fame. This applies not only to Amin, but a fictional young Scottish doctor(James McAvoy), working in a clinic serving the poor. He becomes a pawn of Amin and through bribery ends up serving as his personal physician, his head of security and his political spokesman at times. The doctor is naive, innocent and careless, and takes very dangerous chances that most will see as unbelievable. The film becomes heart-pounding when one particularly crazy sexual encounter ends up going over the edge, but it helps enlighten him to the leader's brutality. Forest Whitaker's take on the tyrant is gripping and hypnotic. He goes from boundless charm one moment and morphs into a murderer the next. The story is based on a successful novel and adapted for the screen by Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock. Ironically, Morgan also wrote the script for "The Queen", and both stars, Mirren for "Queen" and Whitaker for "King" are Oscar nominated. There is some very graphic gore, but how could there not be in a tale about the dual nature of a man who is charismatic and killer all in one.Read full review
at first you're lulled into a false sense of security...but with ominous warnigs....like young boys dragged away to become killers...but the tragedies multiply until idi amin (Forest Whitaker) begins to show his awesome misuse of power...until finally the frightening reality you've seen all along escalates...you know it's Idi Amin but Forest Tucker portrays the unraveling of sanity with remarkable ease. He still has a wee bit of the charm that masked the madman, but now he is using his dynamic personality to lie and make even the press believe. Finally he loses it and even his magnificent prescence cannot hold together his power...he ...well please see the raw truth of this movie first hand
Something wrong with codec/s! Won't play with our PCs but plays with old stand-alone DVD player/s.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in DVDs & Blu-ray Discs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on DVDs & Blu-ray Discs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
