Rise and Fall of Idi Amin

As a child, I lived in Kenya and remember the time when my father went to Kampala for business. But then Milton Obote was overthrown and Idi Amin came into power. A few months later, our business in Kampala had to be shut down and soon after that, Amin ordered all Indians to leave Uganda. Some came across the border into Kenya but most went to England and remained there. It was only later that the news began to come out of the Uganda on how brutal as well as cruel the Ugandan dictator really was.

In the early 1970's Idi Amin overthrew President Milton Obote. The coup was supported by many but soon they this turned ugly and Amin ordered the Indians to leave Uganda. He also started to deal with anyone who opposed him, or, said anything against him. His critics, as well as his opponents are put in prisons and are tortured and killed. At the same time he raped women and did not care for diplomacy - even on International level. At one point he orders the British Ambassdor to kneel before him and at the same time, he calls himself "The King of Scotland."

Directed by Sharad Patel, The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, is filmed in Kenya and has multi cast, which includes the most well known Kenyan actor, who was also a newscaster on what was then "Voice of Kenya," Norbert Okare as the judge that Amin orders to be killed. Jospeh Olita has done an excellent job as "Idi Amin." If at all possible, for those who think that they can watch such a "bloody" (this is not used in swearing sense at all but in real terms of the word) film. And those who would like to know what it was like under Idi Amin, then this is a film that is worth while to watch.

As a matter of interest and as the movie was filmed in Kenya, the scene that depicts Indians leaving their businesses, homes, shops, etc, was filmed with real Indians and not actors in the capital, Naiorbi, in the area of "River Road," which at the time did consist of shops owned by Indians. A lot of the Indians were actually invited to participate in that scene. The swimming pool scene was filmed at the "Nairobi Gymnkhana," which was known as "Patel Club" as well.

The whole warts story of Idi Amin from the taking of power to his subsequent flight to freedom in Saudi Arabia after Tanzania invaded to put an end to his craziness. This is a film that dwells with Amin's lurid and nasty side as we get little snapshots of all of the terrible tings that he did. Not particularly graphic, much of the nastiness is implied rather than shown. There is no good here only the insane man himself.

This film was a Times Square cinema staple for years prior to the "Disnification" of the area, but other than that this film has been largely unseen for the past 25 years (an early home video release was never repeated and it appears no one has officially released it on DVD). Recently one of the cable channels ran it much to my shock and amusement, since I was finally able to see the film for myself.

As an exploitation film this film is dynamite. Its got sex and violence and more violence and bad behavior and heads in a freezer and everything you could want for a lurid time at the movies. There is a reason this played for years on 42nd Street, namely its feeds into a persons basic need for low brow entertainment while allowing us to be feel we're learning something since its based on real events.

Unfortunately after a while you realize that a little bit goes a long way. With Amin as the focus of the film you never really get any rest from the ever escalating insanity. Its just Amin doing crazy stuff and while thats fun for the first half of the movie, it becomes a bit of a drag for the second. Its a problem that the film shares with Barbet Schroeder's film Idi Amin Dada which is a documentary of Amin in his own words. There is only so much one can take of a crazy man before one has to call it quits.

Still its worth seeing if your tastes tend to be exploitive, and since this is legendary and classic film of that ilk its a must see. Those with out the bug for exploitation films may want to tune into see what the fuss is about, but they'll probably find themselves tuning out after awhile.

5 out of 10 for the half before it repeats itself.

After watching 'The Last King of Scotland' last year, I became quite interested in finding out more about the madman that was Amin. I soon discovered that they had made a film in the early 80's and managed to watch a trailer on youtube. I immediately thought this would be a great movie to watch - not necessarily because it was well-acted or directed - but because it had that cheesy,crappy quality..so crap it's good sort of thing!

So finally - and thanks to the wonders of youtube, i managed to watch the movie. It certainly lived up to my expectations. The movie does accurately portray the timeline of his regime and certainly gives you a sense of the terrible conditions people had to endure under his rule. When Amin appears on screen, he just seems to do one terrible thing after another - the movie does seem to be strung together by scene after scene of Amin shouting maniacally about cutting heads off/kicking out asians/shooting the archbishop/liking Hitler/eating human flesh etc etc...all makes for entertaining viewing I have to say..but then you have to bare in mind that this tyrant was real..so we must never forget that. Some notable quotes "No-one mess with Big Daddy!" "This is what happen to bad mommies" "i Like Hitler,i put statue of him in kampala" "i am sex champion" "for an African,you have gone very white!" "you call uganda money sh*t money!"

In summary, definitely an exploitation film BUT does portray the man as the evil villain he was.

The mere fact that there are enough exploitation films based on Idi Amin to merit their own genre in a video store, Idi Aminxploitation is truly disturbing.

I don't just mean films about Idi Amin, I mean outright exploitations films which use the Ugandan dictator to include as much sex and violence as possible.

This one's unique by taking the bold move casting real Africans actors to play Africans rather than American Mulattos with fake accents. The authentic African accents are a double edged sword. While it does make us feel like this really is Africa but their accents are so strong it can be difficult to understand what they're saying. And now that I think of it they shouldn't even be speaking English at all! Oh well, still better than those American Mulattos.

Idi Amin is right up there with Caligula as not being too important to history itself but extremely memorably simply for his insanity and debauchery.

There's never a dull moment in this film. It's fast paced and Amin's insanity provides non stop entertainment.

The only major problem is that if you don't actually know the history of Idi Amin you'll be lost. The film doesn't actually explain the context for many scenes. For example, the Israeli hostages and the raid at Entebbe are never explained.

The ending is also a major let down. It just ends out of nowhere! There's no climax, no resolution, it's just ends by saying the film is devoted to Amin's victims. Yeah right! They made an exploitation film to honor the dead?

It's certainly worth a watch and stands out as far better than any of the other Idi Aminxploitation films.

I don't know how these gooses end up as presidents, but it happens way too often. Anyway I laughed at the rubbish that comes out of amin's mouth, whenever he makes a mistake, he asks some British dude how to make himself look less ridiculous. Senseless killings, cannibalism, it's all there to see, worth watching, you would laugh more if this was fiction, knowing these atrocities actually happened makes it more of a somber affair. the main actor played idi amin well and kept me motivated to finish this monstrosity of a movie, being history, this is worth watching and if it helps i found it on youtube in VHS quality which made me go way back in time. I won't be watching a rerun, that's for sure.