The Last King of Scotland

It's nice to see an African role not played by this guy. Also, the noms are in this morning and it looks as though Forest Whitaker's Oscar-bait performance has done the trick. Cheers. Nothing like a good bio-pic to get the nomination juices flowing. Just mimic a noted historical figure for an hour-and-a-half of screen time and you'll nail yourself a nod. Just ask her, her, him, this guy, etc. Hollywood magic. An actor I've always admired and with whom I've always been impressed, Forest Whitaker's long-awaited performance as eccentric Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is unfortunately watered down with the sap of his eager colleagues who've been riding the biography wave for the past two or three years and reaping the inevitable rewards.

And maybe it's because I've just been through an Asian Extreme kick, been around the world for the past month, saw the newest David Lynch, and not to mention Jackass Number Two, but director Kevin MacDonald's brutal film didn't gut me the way it seemed to the rest of the audience behind me. A woman with (the faint of heart and stomach should look away now) her arms replaced with her legs would normally have caused me to cringe, but instead I took it in stride. The similarly hard-on-the-stomach climax was another brutality I was able to endure.

Anyone fully embracing "The Last King of Scotland" as a noteworthy film should see its superior predecessor, 1970's "A Man Called Horse," starring a radiant Richard Harris. Where LKOS's determinist perspective, pessimistic anti-transcendentalism, and deliberate dearth of humanity and reason make for a total bummer of an "edgy" political thriller, Elliot Silverstein's 1970 film maintained an absolute faith in the integrity of its cultural values. The hanging sequence a celebration of what cements the solidarity of a culture, rather than a fiendish retaliatory reminder to the Great White West that African politics are in fact "real."

As if we need to be reminded of this. Aren't the New York City subway ads "real" enough? "Humans becoming extinct faster than animals," "We are all African," and so on. Didn't we just see Blood Diamond, and Hotel Rwanda, and SaveDarfur.org? MacDonald's unfortunate boon is that Africa is a cruel and inhuman place and the only thing its people understand is a deliberate show of force. The film has been accused of an imperialistic approach due to its reliance on a cute and charismatic white boy as our keyhole into Africa. I make the same accusation, but for a different reason. LKOS's humanity is missing, and the empathy and tolerance of foreign practices (polygamy, torture, etc.) isn't even hinted at. Yes, the Scottish doctor makes some grave mistakes, but at least he's portrayed with some kind of reasoning mechanism. The Africans in this film are treated as props, the squabbling pawns of Western Imperialists. I'll admit, though, it is done in the name of a higher purpose. That purpose is called Hollywood Political Thrill.