The Last King of Scotland
Forest Whitaker gave an excellent performance as Idi Amin, a ruthless dictator who ruled Uganda in the 1970's. It shows that method acting really does bring results as while doing the part Whittaker ate only mashed bananas and beans and started learning Swahili and Kakwa!!
He managed to portray his ever altering persona of charm underpinned with evil and gave the character real individuality, never being guilty of overacting which may have been the temptation with this role. Based on Giles Fodens' novel of the same name the film is a fictional tale of young newly qualified Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (played by James McAvoy) and his friendship with Amin. Amin is genuinely taken with Garrigan and invites him to be his personal physician. In return, Garrigan appears to almost hero-worship Amin, blinding himself to the evidence of the dictators' uncertain sanity and increasingly violent acts. Although Amin is happy to introduce Garrigan to many attractive women, Garrigan decides to have an affair with one of Amins' wives and the mother of two of his children. It is hard to have any sympathy with a man who makes such careless and foolish decisions. When Amin dismembers the body of the woman who has betrayed him and the friendship between himself and Garrigan descends into hatred it is hardly surprising. It is as if Garrigan expects Amin to react like a mild-mannered middle-class British man might - he does not see Amin and Africa in a realistic light.
He managed to portray his ever altering persona of charm underpinned with evil and gave the character real individuality, never being guilty of overacting which may have been the temptation with this role. Based on Giles Fodens' novel of the same name the film is a fictional tale of young newly qualified Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (played by James McAvoy) and his friendship with Amin. Amin is genuinely taken with Garrigan and invites him to be his personal physician. In return, Garrigan appears to almost hero-worship Amin, blinding himself to the evidence of the dictators' uncertain sanity and increasingly violent acts. Although Amin is happy to introduce Garrigan to many attractive women, Garrigan decides to have an affair with one of Amins' wives and the mother of two of his children. It is hard to have any sympathy with a man who makes such careless and foolish decisions. When Amin dismembers the body of the woman who has betrayed him and the friendship between himself and Garrigan descends into hatred it is hardly surprising. It is as if Garrigan expects Amin to react like a mild-mannered middle-class British man might - he does not see Amin and Africa in a realistic light.
posted by Lady Fotherington-Smethers at 1:59 AM
3 Comments:
Whitaker proved that he really is a man of a thousand faces here. I think McAvoy has a bright future ahead. Also like the symbloic imagery like the eerie silhouette of the stork flying overhead as a harbinger of the evil that was to come. While Amin was probably portrayed in a relatively accurate light, the mixture of fact with fiction was somewhat of-putting. The hijack of the Israeli aircraft at Entebbe airport, for example worked well in terms of build up of tension, but the fictionalisation tends to obscure the true facts of the event.
Whitaker has proven several times that he is a superb actor with amazing breadth and scope.
If I ate nothing but "mashed bananas and beans" for a while, I too could be mean enough to play Idi Amin. ;-)
Yes CW, I know what you mean. I overheard a guy recounting these events to a friend in the manner of a definitive history lesson.
But I'm happy that FW won his Oscar and Bafta. Have you seen him in Jarmusch's 'Ghost Dog'? Wonderful. I bet he ate a lot of ice-cream for that one.
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