Idi Amin, the greatest Ugandan?

For some reasons, Europeans are fixated on the concept of which of their number was "the greatest". Britons, Frenchmen and Spaniards all seem to go nuts when some television network asks which of their countrymen was the greatest of all time. Occasionally, the answers are startling. You may remember that I blogged about Portugal's bizarre elevation of dictator António Salazar to the top spot, or Spain's insistence that Francisco Franco was the twenty-third greatest Spaniard of all time. I can only hope they don't ask Russians the same question, because I really don't want to know where they'd rank Leonid Brezhnev.

Uganda is obviously not a European country, but I'm sure that there are some Ugandans who wonder, if only for a moment, who the greatest representative of their fairly young, artificially hobbled together country is. While he doesn't speak for everyone in Uganda, obviously, African Path blogger Dennis Matanda makes the case that no other man in Ugandan history has left his imprint on Uganda quite as much as the late dictator Idi Amin Dada has.

Before you drop dead from surprise, read his case for Amin being the greatest Ugandan right here.

UPDATE: Dennis posts the second part of his argument for Idi Amin Dada!

And the award goes to ...

Well I'll be damned. Forest Whitaker has won an Oscar for his portrayal of the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada in The Last King of Scotland. I believe this is the first time anyone has won an Oscar for their portrayal of a dictator ... but hopefully, it won't be the last. I, for one, hope it opens the floodgates for dozens of dictator bio-pics. After all, if they can make a hundred Marvel Comics movies, why can't they start making quality films about Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong or Saparmurat Niazov? Hop to it, Hollywood!

For what it's worth, I enjoyed The Last King of Scotland, but I certainly found it less compelling than the German film Der Untergang. And while Whitaker's take Idi Amin Dada was enjoyable, Bruno Ganz's performance as Adolf Hitler blew Whitaker's Amin out of the water. Where The Last King of Scotland tries to play Amin for laughs, Ganz goes straight for the gut as the exasperated and desperate Hitler in the waning days of the third reich.

Still, it's hard to go wrong with either movie, and as I've said before, I hope this opens up the floodgates for more to come.

Cinema Verité

Does time heal all wounds? If this article in The Brunei Times is to be believed, the answer is yes.

The movie The Last King of Scotland (a fictionalized semi-biography of the late Idi Amin Dada) is finally coming to a theater near you in Kampala, Uganda. So how are Ugandans reacting to the prospect of seeing their infamous dictator portrayed on film? If the Brunei Times article is to be believed, Ugandans are eager to see the movie. Even though many are too young to remember a reign of terror which left a body count of an estimated 300,000 of their countrymen, it seems many people are entranced by the depth of Forest Whitaker's preparation for the role, especially his adoption of a Ugandan accent and mannerisms.

Older Ugandans are quoted as remembering Amin's tenure as chaotic and frightening, saying that the constant domestic political conflicts and low-to-medium intensity civil war was "terrifying". One man grudgingly gave the devil his due, however, noting that Amin "did a lot for sport in Uganda ... we did well in the Olympics".

Should Forest Whitaker win the Oscar for best actor, I believe it will be the first portrayal of a dictator to win this award (if I'm wrong, please let me know), and having seen the movie, I can agree that Whitaker's performance as Amin does eerily match Idi Amin's own performance in the infinitely creepy documentary General Idi Amin Dada. So maybe method acting doesn't always suck after all.

REMINDER: You have until Monday to vote for the next dictator to receive a top 10 profile!

The Last King of Scotland

No, not James I, but the late, unlamented Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, is the focus of the new film The Last King of Scotland.

While the movie is clearly fiction, the real life and times of one of Africa's most notorious big men are brought to life in the movie, beginning with the overthrow of Uganda's previous dictator, to the economically disastrous expulsion of Uganda's "Asian" business class, to the militarily diastrous decision to provide assistance to Palestinian hijackers at Entebbe, the film reconstructs the timeline of Amin's bloody tyranny through the eyes of a Scottish doctor who manages to ingratiate himself to Amin.

Amin, of course, was no stranger to film during his lifetime, having appeared as himself in the bizarre documentary Idi Amin Dada, where he plays the accordion, mounts a mock invasion of the Golan Heights, and terrifies his subordinates, all while playing the role of a large, jolly man who feels wounded at being "misunderstood" at being portrayed as a bloodthirsty buffoon an unsympathetic Western press. Amin certainly didn't help his own cause, however, by murdering his political opponents, launching ill advised military actions against Uganda's neighbors. What's more, Amin's penchant for self-aggrandizing made him a popular target for Western reporters looking to portray him as an ignorant lout. Consider his modest, self-described title:

His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, King of Scotland, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular

His service in the King's African Rifles notwithstanding, Idi Amin's chances of being awarded the Victoria Cross were roughly equivalent to my chances of being Miss Venezuela. It was Amin's bufoonish side and boyish charm that unnervingly contrasted with his explosive temper, total paranoia and bloodthirsty appetite for revenge, making him equal only to Mobutu Sese Seko as the most notorious of Africa's big men.

So what did I think of the movie? As a dictator-phile, I was pleasantly surprised by Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Amin, delighted that he paid such close attention to Amin's own mannerisms and body language from Idi Amin Dada. I was less enthralled with the Scottish doctor as narrative device, the romantic and espionage subplots, et al., and look forward to the day when Hollywood is ready to tackle the dictator biopic with the seriousness and breadth of vision it deserves.