Review:
How I saw it. DVD Screener
Opens in Korea. March 8, 2007
Plot: (HUGE SPOILER ALERT) The story revolves around how a young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, becomes, by chance, the personal physician to the new Ugandan President Idi Amin. At first Garrigan tries to ignore the crimes Amin is committing across the country, but he is forced to realize their reality when a comment of his leads Amin to kill the health minister. Garrigan also develops an affair with one of Amin's many wives, and impregnates her. She is killed by Amin, causing Garrigan to attempt to poison Amin. Amin discovers this scheme and orders Garrigan killed. Garrigan is saved by a fellow Ugandan doctor, and escapes with a group of hostages released during the Air France hijacking at Entebbe International Airport. END SPOLIER ALERT
The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role it was for Forrest Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin.
Please see this link to see who Idi Amin Was.
Now a little background before I start the review,
I knew who Amin was due to my history Degree and my major paper praising the 1976 Raid on Entebbe. When we had to pick a dictator and pretend to be him and describe why they became a dictator, I drew Amin. So my speech research gave me a lot of background of this man.
Now the huge problem that I have with this film is the Doctor Nicholas Garrigan. In 1971-79 Uganda he did not exist. He is a fictional character. The film tries to portray him as a hound-dog and then the Jiminy Cricket voice of reason to the insane Amin. I recalled that he did have a Scottish doctor when he was president of Uganda, so I thought at first that this was his story but when I soon realized that this doctor was fiction, the film lost me very fast.
Now what I did like about the film was Whitaker’s take on Amin. He had him down pat, from all of the video that I seen of Amin and with the wide eyed speech that he gives about eating chickens instead of his enemies was Amin to the max.
Now, for what I really hated about the film. I wish the film would have continued to the actual fall of Amin in 1979 and his exile into Saudi Arabia. Instead the film ends with the raid of Entebbe 48 hours away. It did not show any of the raid, it did not show the inner collapse of Amin after the raid. For these reasons the film fails. I still cannot believe that they put a major person into this film and he never existed.
Overall there are better films about Amin than this one to see, if you want to see a good performance then please see it for Forrest Whitaker’s acting role. If you are looking for a good film, then please pass on this one.
Grade (C-)
Girl on Bus: Do you have monkeys in Scotland?
Nicholas Garrigan: No, but if we did we'd probably deep fry them!