The Last King of Scotland

I watched a movie about Idi Amin, a president of Uganda from 1971-1979.

I thought he was best summed up this way: On the special features segment on the dvd, a physician who treated him for a year said:

“I think he was at times what we called ‘hyper-matic.’ He was excited, he felt that he had a better understanding then most people of what was going on, and that his ideas which were on the whole fairly obvious, were in fact rather the ideas of a genius and that he owed it to the world to put the world right.

The fact that he talked so much—people who become excited, who have ideas of grandeur, who think they have the answers to complicated problems, and in sense loose touch with every day reality.”

This kind of person is: charismatic, intimidates, paranoid, a dictator, monstrous, has “followers,” charm, and some leadership qualities. They will joke with you, humor you, poof up your vanity to gain your confidence in them so they have your loyalty. You never know where he stands.

It was fascinating to learn about this character who actually did exist and was responsible for 300,000 deaths in Uganda. 12 of his ministers fled the country. He offered food aide to the British (Uganda offering help to Britain??) Amin died in 2003 while exiled in Saudi Arabia. They made the film in 2005.

The Scotsman’s role in the film is fictitious, but I related with him as I think anyone would: flattered by this person of power, the innocence of wanting to do good, confused by them, becoming trapped, then disgusted because you see them for who they really are. But the leader knows that and is already working behind your back to have you eliminated. To my surprise, I saw a lot of personality similarities to a person I once worked for. Now, I wasn’t executed, as Amin would’ve done, but this person had a bone to pick with me and wanted me eliminated. I also observed that Africa as a whole isn’t as poor as I thought. And confirmed my thoughts that everyone in the world are the same people—wherever you go.

I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into when I rented this--I had no idea what to expect. Minus a few parts, overall it was good, scary, a little revealing. Interestingly they had to make Forest Whitaker even blacker because Idi was black black. Forest is chocolate. ;)