I dreamed of Africa
This weekend I watched a riveting Africa Double Feature. First up was the luminous Edward Zwick vehicle Blood Diamond, which is the movie that has finally convinced me of Leonardo DiCaprio's talents. He plays a Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) diamond smuggler in Sierra Leone, circa 1999, who is after a gargantuan diamond uncovered by Djimon Hansou. Jennifer Connelly plays the cookie-cutter, adventure-chasing war journalist, though she does it with style. I had two primary impressions of this movie -- one is that it was rewarding to see someone, anyone, tell the fucked-up story of late-90s Sierra Leone and Liberia. There are harrowing, if inelegantly staged, scenes of child soldiers being brainwashed and made into killing machines. You will not soon forget the image of a 10-year-old child with nothing left behind the eyes wielding an AK-47, or of "rebel" commanders cutting off limbs. Neighboring Liberia is where Charles Taylor once won an election on the slogan "He Killed My Ma, He Killed My Pa, But I'll Vote For Him."
And yet Blood Diamond is incorrigably, sometimes insufferably Hollywood. It's as if Zwick - who directed Glory and the unbearably awful Last Samurai -- does not believe that Sierra Leone's tragic tale of diamonds, civil war, and genocide is enough of a story in itself. We need some heroic white people and an impossibly noble African to give us the romance, the narrow escapes, and the redemption. But I'm sorry, there was nothing redemptive about what happened to Sierra Leone. Nothing.
Last night it was time for The Last King of Scotland, the somewhat fictionalized tale of Idi Amin's genocidal regime in Uganda. The tale is told through the eyes of (all together now) a white person, although this white person is, refreshingly, a total opportunist scumbag. James McAvoy plays Nicholas Gerrigan, a bored child of privilege who takes his MD to Africa to like, save people and junk. Interested more in womanizing and politics, he becomes Amin's personal physician, advisor, and confidante. And of course the centerpiece of this movie, as you've probably heard, is Forest Whitaker's sensational performance as Amin. You can tell straight away that Amin is a dangerous lunatic -- capricious, volatile, and bizarrely charming when he needs to be, he nevertheless convinces Gerrigan to become complicit in all sorts of crimes. And so although Gerrigan's character is actually a composite of any number of white advisors to Amin, he becomes a kind of metaphorical stand-in for all the crimes and complicity of colonialism. Gerrigan eventually realizes what's going on, but not before he has cut his own swath of crime, death and mayhem. While I would have liked to have seen a bit more context and a bit less traditional thriller, the film is gripping and at least has something to say. And unlike Blood Diamond, the message is delivered artfully, though not entirely without artifice. I recommend watching both back-to-back and drawing your own conclusions.
And yet Blood Diamond is incorrigably, sometimes insufferably Hollywood. It's as if Zwick - who directed Glory and the unbearably awful Last Samurai -- does not believe that Sierra Leone's tragic tale of diamonds, civil war, and genocide is enough of a story in itself. We need some heroic white people and an impossibly noble African to give us the romance, the narrow escapes, and the redemption. But I'm sorry, there was nothing redemptive about what happened to Sierra Leone. Nothing.
Last night it was time for The Last King of Scotland, the somewhat fictionalized tale of Idi Amin's genocidal regime in Uganda. The tale is told through the eyes of (all together now) a white person, although this white person is, refreshingly, a total opportunist scumbag. James McAvoy plays Nicholas Gerrigan, a bored child of privilege who takes his MD to Africa to like, save people and junk. Interested more in womanizing and politics, he becomes Amin's personal physician, advisor, and confidante. And of course the centerpiece of this movie, as you've probably heard, is Forest Whitaker's sensational performance as Amin. You can tell straight away that Amin is a dangerous lunatic -- capricious, volatile, and bizarrely charming when he needs to be, he nevertheless convinces Gerrigan to become complicit in all sorts of crimes. And so although Gerrigan's character is actually a composite of any number of white advisors to Amin, he becomes a kind of metaphorical stand-in for all the crimes and complicity of colonialism. Gerrigan eventually realizes what's going on, but not before he has cut his own swath of crime, death and mayhem. While I would have liked to have seen a bit more context and a bit less traditional thriller, the film is gripping and at least has something to say. And unlike Blood Diamond, the message is delivered artfully, though not entirely without artifice. I recommend watching both back-to-back and drawing your own conclusions.