Discuss The Last King of Scotland
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"You didn't persuade me, Nicholas"
posted by tmdb53400018STAFFMOD on April 30, 2023 at 6:37 AM
So says Forest Whitaker's General Idi Amin in despondency to his doctor and "adviser" Nicholas Garrigan, in regard to the over 40,000 Asians whom Amin historically and infamously expelled from Uganda in a fit of ethnic cleansing. This is a pretty decent film, pivoted by Whitaker's Oscar-winning performance (every bit as great as you've heard it is) and James McAvoy's turn as Garrigan, a fish out of water in majority black Africa. The script is a bit rough. However, Last King of Scotland's gritty imagery and soulful soundtrack are quite seductive, and almost make up for the shortcomings of this film loosely adapted from Amin's exploits.
Did Amin practice "black supremacy?" Nope. It is worth noting, however, that the extremeness of white racism should never efface the possibility of the emergence of such a politics. For if we forget that black people are flawed human beings like everyone else, we may leave open the door for said people to imitate or maybe even outdo their oppressors -- the idea of a morally perfect, benign race of black people being just as reductive as the fantasies of the colonizer.
Reply by bratface
on April 30, 2023 at 6:31 PM
Here is a quote from Amin at the time:
Amin defended the expulsion by arguing that he was "giving Uganda back to ethnic Ugandans".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Asians_from_Uganda
https://madrascourier.com/insight/what-idi-amins-expulsion-of-ugandan-asians-informs-us-about-racism/
There are many articles about the expulsion, I have included two.
Reply by tmdb53400018
on April 30, 2023 at 7:56 PM
OK, but if he regretted expelling them as he's portrayed in the film, then he was probably wrong for doing so.
Reply by bratface
on April 30, 2023 at 8:04 PM
The film was mostly fiction. I personally really liked the film (I gave it 8/10) but after reading about the film after I had seen it, I realized that the accuracy was suspect. It's too bad that the relationship between Amin & Garrigan wasn't real.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_King_of_Scotland_(film)#Historical_accuracy
Reply by tmdb53400018
on April 30, 2023 at 8:22 PM
I knew about the film being based on a novel. All you gotta do is check out the film's page on this site and I think it gives credit to the novelist.
It doesn't necessarily mean that Idi Amin didn't eventually regret throwing thousands of human beings out of Uganda for not being black enough, nor earn international infamy for doing so.
Reply by tmdb53400018
on May 2, 2023 at 12:55 PM
I don't know anything about the last two people you mentioned. As for the second one: asking for trouble, are we?