White man's hope

So I'm taking this opportunity to personally bash the upcoming movie "Last King of Scotland". Why you may ask?


This movie, "Last King of Scotland", is about Idi Amin the man who lead a military coup in Uganda during the 70's. Upon achieving the goal of taking over Uganda he promptly titled himself "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" and then set out on a campaign of terror.

Administered by the State Research Bureau, a death squad with an odd name, Idi Amin oversaw the deaths and torture of 250,000 fellow country men, along with the forced deportation of 50,000 Asians residing in Uganda at the time of his coup. The movie will star Forest Whitaker as Amin, and Simon McBurney as Nigel Stone, a white doctor who didn't really exist.



Why does this piss me off to the point where I don't want you, the reader, to watch the movie? Because, it's a retarded thing that Hollywood does over and over. They say "This Idi Amin sure was a nasty guy!" and some other suit says "Yup, terrible. We should make a movie about what an awful guy he was."

Then some other suit interjects "Yeah, but nobody wants to watch a movie about black people in Africa... how can we tell this story and make it interesting?" And lastly, another suit says, "Let's put a white person in it to make people care!" And so another historical drama is ruined by some bullshit Hollywood idiots, or in this case an adaptation of a book that's potentially as stupid, in which all the horrors that Idi Amin committed are made into backdrops for the harrowing story of how a white guy got caught up with a bad black man, and how he escapes that crazy, mean old black man's vengeance.


I mean, who wants to see a movie that just shows how Idi Amin turned a popular revolt against his own people and showed himself to be just like every other dictator out there? Why would someone pay a good twelve dollars to see a story told from the perspective of a Ugandan who at first is happy Amin overthrew the corrupt Prime Minister Obote only to become disillusioned as his personal freedoms are removed and his friends, family and his own life are put in jeopardy?

Wouldn't we rather see something along the lines of "Seven Years in Tibet", the pale imitation of Scorsese's' "Kundun", in which the story of the Dalai Llama is told through the eyes of a white Brad Pitt? Isn't it better to address the issues facing young black youths in America by telling the story of a prim white teacher going to "the hood" like Michelle Pfiefer does in "Dangerous Minds"?


Seriously, what's next? The story of Huey Newton as told by a precocious white teen growing up in the hood played by Jonathan Lipnicki? How about Pol Pot's reign of terror in Cambodia seen through the eyes of Anne Hathoway, who accidentally got lost on her way to Burma?

It's a bunch of bullshit. If you want to tell the story of Idi Amin tell the story, use Forest Whitaker... stop adding white people to the mix.