"We are not a game, Nicholas."
I am sad we had to have a white male protag to follow around in order to tell a black guy's story. The Ugandan doctor who saves his ass would have made a much better protagonist.
Forest Whitaker is amazing in this movie. It's worth every blessed penny to see him completely nail this performance of a man living on the edge of madness.
Women characters were marginal to the men's stories, and end up in refrigerators 50% of the time (I should say, story: it's still the white guy's story, and he's a really, really awful character), and as said, apparently white audiences aren't expected to show interest in stories about Ugandans unless a white person's involved, but it was a powerful film nonetheless. I'd put off watching it for a long time because I knew it was going to be a downer - what I didn't expect was how incredibly intense it was. Again, watching Whitaker zoom back and forth was phenomenal.
Highly recommended.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
The Last King of Scotland
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3 comments so far. What are your thoughts?
a really, really awful characterBut hot!
I remember thinking about the whole thing being from a white character's point of view when I saw the movie. I think it said in the credits that it was based on a book that the main character wrote.
I've been meaning to ask you, (maybe I have, I forget), have you seen "Mongol?" I saw that a while back and it seemed like your type of movie. It has no white characters, and is very interesting in the way it portrays the main female character.
I did see Mongol! I thought it was a fascinating way to tell that story. It was not at all what I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised.
I loved the way the actual warring was the subplot, and the relationship with his wife was.. well, the actual plot. A complete reversal of what you usually see, and powerful because of that. I love what it did to old tropes, assumptions, and expectations.
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