Post by -|E|- on Sept 28, 2006 8:28:52 GMT -5
Whitaker astounds in ‘Last King of Scotland’
His performance is so good that you’ll actually feel sorry for Idi Amin
L-R: Forest Whitaker, Gillian Anderson and James
McAvoy in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
REVIEW
By Christy Lemire
msnbc.msn.com/id/15031661/
Updated: 2:24 p.m. ET Sept 27, 2006
We’ve seen Forest Whitaker do this on one of the best shows on television, “The Shield.”
As an internal affairs lieutenant whose methods are just as unorthodox as those of the rogue detective squad he’s investigating, Whitaker has been mesmerizing in his volatility. He can sidle on up to you as the sweetest, gentlest giant one minute, then fly into a vicious rage the next. He makes both sides of this complicated figure feel frighteningly real.
And so on the big screen, his emotional depth and range are even more stunning in one of the year’s best movies, “The Last King of Scotland.”
This is not hyperbole. This is how good Whitaker is: He actually makes you feel sorry for Idi Amin.
The suggestion already has been duly bandied about so we may as well acknowledge it here, as well: His performance is nothing short of Oscar-worthy.
Under the direction of Kevin Macdonald (“Touching the Void”), making his feature debut, Whitaker gets plenty of room to demonstrate the vastly contradictory facets of the larger-than-life Ugandan dictator.
Macdonald uses many of the same technical tactics from his documentary background, making you feel as if you are there, showing you how easy it might have been to be seduced by this charismatic character who also happened to be a cold-blooded killer.
Functioning as our guide through this shadowy world is James McAvoy, starring as Nick Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who becomes Amin’s personal physician, then his captive adviser. But Macdonald and screenwriters Jeremy Brock, Peter Morgan and Joe Penhall, working from Giles Foden’s novel, don’t just depict Nick as the innocent in this fictionalized tale.
When he lands in the African nation fresh out of medical school — and just as President Obete is being overthrown in a coup — his intentions initially seem altruistic. One look around the waiting room, packed with poor families and echoing with the din of crying babies, shows him he has his work cut out for him — and the look on his face is one of many examples of Macdonald allowing an actor to speak volumes with just a subtle glance.
But then Nick’s advances toward a married colleague (Gillian Anderson, doing a perfect British accent) reveal the first glimmers of a darker side. And when he meets Amin during a roadside confrontation, he captures the dictator’s attention by proving he can match him in confidence.
It doesn’t take long for Amin to persuade Nick to abandon his mission and come work for him. And who could blame him? Life at the palace is good, a non-stop orgy of women and drink, a celebration of wretched excess with Amin as its charming, generous host. It would be hard for anyone to turn that down.
The proximity to power becomes intoxicating, but Nick also gets close enough to Amin to see his weaknesses, his insecurities, his paranoia — and at times become the victim of them. The man who ultimately would be responsible for the deaths of 300,000 Ugandans in the 1970s often comes off as nothing more than an overgrown child, throwing a tantrum when he doesn’t get what he wants.
Whitaker vividly shows us this element of Amin’s personality, as well, as he trembles and sweats in his ornate bedroom, his eyes bulging with fear. It’s a far cry from the man who’s arrogant enough to claim he knows exactly when he’s going to die, and how.
Soon Nick is giving Amin advice on more that just his health, but on policy and media manipulation. He likes that, too — and he likes Amin’s beautiful third wife (Kerry Washington), though their secret relationship will provide some plot twists that make “The Last King of Scotland” a little too implausible as it reaches its harrowing conclusion.
That’s the main sensation that you’ll have walking out of the film — that you witnessed something harrowing. And sexy and thrilling and even fun. But mostly it’s just scary as hell, with a hell of a performance from an actor who, despite excellent work in films like “Bird” and “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” has too long been overlooked. Until now.
==========================================
Forest Whitaker finds his inner dictator
For ‘The Last King of Scotland’ actor humanizes brutal dictator Idi Amin
Forest Whitaker poses for a portrait in Toronto
on Sept. 11. Whitaker was attending the Toronto
Film Festival for the screening of his latest film,
"Last King of Scotland."
Updated: 2:27 p.m. ET Sept 27, 2006
msnbc.msn.com/id/15001666/
TORONTO - Forest Whitaker tends to stick to the fringes, a soft-spoken man best known for restrained supporting roles and hushed characters who would not stand out in a crowd.
So it’s surprising to see him at the center of the throng, whipping people up to a frenzy. And even more surprising that he’s doing it as that tyrannical boogeyman of the 1970s, Idi Amin, in “The Last King of Scotland.”
Whitaker approaches the Ugandan dictator the way the finest actors to play Adolf Hitler have done, putting a frighteningly human face on a leader able to enchant the masses and media even as his brutal regime tortured and killed people.
A teenager when Amin’s eight-year reign ended in 1979, Whitaker initially was aware of the man only as the despot depicted in the news.
“I just had a postage-stamp image of him. They created him as this savage, brutal guy. I remember this picture of him holding his fist up in a military-type uniform, and he was known as this crazy dictator,” Whitaker, 45, told The Associated Press at the Toronto International Film Festival. “That’s really all I knew until I started working on the character. Then it became much more vast. ...
“Hundreds of thousands of people died under his watch, so I’m not negating that. But the amount of charisma, humor, joy and verve he had. I had no idea of that, and it’s very clear when you watch him on tape, he was a massive showman.”
Preparing to play a dictator
Adapted from Giles Foden’s novel, the film spins a fictional narrative about a young Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) seeking adventure in Uganda who catches Amin’s eye and becomes personal physician — and ultimately trapped confidante — to the charming but ruthless ruler.
Whitaker fell somewhat under the man’s spell himself as he researched Amin, who died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003. Ugandans have curiously mixed feelings about Amin, abhorring the man for his bloody methods while admiring his progressive efforts to build schools and hospitals.
“I had to pass through the propaganda maze — ignore it, actually — and just go to the source,” said Whitaker, who researched the character through copious reading, studying video footage and talking with Ugandans about Amin.
“If we were in Uganda, we would know him intimately,” Whitaker said. “He would have killed someone we know or promoted someone we know. So it’s kind of easy. You get in a cab there, you’re going to hear story after story.”
Preparing for a role, Whitaker often immerses himself in the character’s world. For the lead role in “Bird,” Clint Eastwood’s film biography of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, Whitaker said he moved into a New York City loft “solely to be able to play the sax 24/7.”
For the lead in Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” Whitaker said he meditated two or three hours a day to get inside the head of his taciturn character, “so by the time I walked out on set, I was kind of in an odd space. I was, like, buzzing.”
For “The Last King of Scotland,” Whitaker painstakingly re-created Amin’s accent and submerged himself in African culture, visiting archaeological landmarks, subsisting on regional food staples such as green bananas and bean sauce, and trekking to the source of the Nile.
On set, Whitaker would maintain Amin’s accent and bearing between takes. His embodiment of Amin was so authentic it intimidated the film’s crew, co-star McAvoy said.
“I was in every scene in the film, so I saw the crew when Forest wasn’t on the set, and it was a completely different atmosphere. When Forest walked on the set and we’d been working all day, you’d just see everybody tense up totally,” McAvoy said. “But in a way, people focused more and worked harder, and everybody stepped up.”
His performance is so good that you’ll actually feel sorry for Idi Amin
L-R: Forest Whitaker, Gillian Anderson and James
McAvoy in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
REVIEW
By Christy Lemire
msnbc.msn.com/id/15031661/
Updated: 2:24 p.m. ET Sept 27, 2006
We’ve seen Forest Whitaker do this on one of the best shows on television, “The Shield.”
As an internal affairs lieutenant whose methods are just as unorthodox as those of the rogue detective squad he’s investigating, Whitaker has been mesmerizing in his volatility. He can sidle on up to you as the sweetest, gentlest giant one minute, then fly into a vicious rage the next. He makes both sides of this complicated figure feel frighteningly real.
And so on the big screen, his emotional depth and range are even more stunning in one of the year’s best movies, “The Last King of Scotland.”
This is not hyperbole. This is how good Whitaker is: He actually makes you feel sorry for Idi Amin.
The suggestion already has been duly bandied about so we may as well acknowledge it here, as well: His performance is nothing short of Oscar-worthy.
Under the direction of Kevin Macdonald (“Touching the Void”), making his feature debut, Whitaker gets plenty of room to demonstrate the vastly contradictory facets of the larger-than-life Ugandan dictator.
Macdonald uses many of the same technical tactics from his documentary background, making you feel as if you are there, showing you how easy it might have been to be seduced by this charismatic character who also happened to be a cold-blooded killer.
Functioning as our guide through this shadowy world is James McAvoy, starring as Nick Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who becomes Amin’s personal physician, then his captive adviser. But Macdonald and screenwriters Jeremy Brock, Peter Morgan and Joe Penhall, working from Giles Foden’s novel, don’t just depict Nick as the innocent in this fictionalized tale.
When he lands in the African nation fresh out of medical school — and just as President Obete is being overthrown in a coup — his intentions initially seem altruistic. One look around the waiting room, packed with poor families and echoing with the din of crying babies, shows him he has his work cut out for him — and the look on his face is one of many examples of Macdonald allowing an actor to speak volumes with just a subtle glance.
But then Nick’s advances toward a married colleague (Gillian Anderson, doing a perfect British accent) reveal the first glimmers of a darker side. And when he meets Amin during a roadside confrontation, he captures the dictator’s attention by proving he can match him in confidence.
It doesn’t take long for Amin to persuade Nick to abandon his mission and come work for him. And who could blame him? Life at the palace is good, a non-stop orgy of women and drink, a celebration of wretched excess with Amin as its charming, generous host. It would be hard for anyone to turn that down.
The proximity to power becomes intoxicating, but Nick also gets close enough to Amin to see his weaknesses, his insecurities, his paranoia — and at times become the victim of them. The man who ultimately would be responsible for the deaths of 300,000 Ugandans in the 1970s often comes off as nothing more than an overgrown child, throwing a tantrum when he doesn’t get what he wants.
Whitaker vividly shows us this element of Amin’s personality, as well, as he trembles and sweats in his ornate bedroom, his eyes bulging with fear. It’s a far cry from the man who’s arrogant enough to claim he knows exactly when he’s going to die, and how.
Soon Nick is giving Amin advice on more that just his health, but on policy and media manipulation. He likes that, too — and he likes Amin’s beautiful third wife (Kerry Washington), though their secret relationship will provide some plot twists that make “The Last King of Scotland” a little too implausible as it reaches its harrowing conclusion.
That’s the main sensation that you’ll have walking out of the film — that you witnessed something harrowing. And sexy and thrilling and even fun. But mostly it’s just scary as hell, with a hell of a performance from an actor who, despite excellent work in films like “Bird” and “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” has too long been overlooked. Until now.
==========================================
Forest Whitaker finds his inner dictator
For ‘The Last King of Scotland’ actor humanizes brutal dictator Idi Amin
Forest Whitaker poses for a portrait in Toronto
on Sept. 11. Whitaker was attending the Toronto
Film Festival for the screening of his latest film,
"Last King of Scotland."
Updated: 2:27 p.m. ET Sept 27, 2006
msnbc.msn.com/id/15001666/
TORONTO - Forest Whitaker tends to stick to the fringes, a soft-spoken man best known for restrained supporting roles and hushed characters who would not stand out in a crowd.
So it’s surprising to see him at the center of the throng, whipping people up to a frenzy. And even more surprising that he’s doing it as that tyrannical boogeyman of the 1970s, Idi Amin, in “The Last King of Scotland.”
Whitaker approaches the Ugandan dictator the way the finest actors to play Adolf Hitler have done, putting a frighteningly human face on a leader able to enchant the masses and media even as his brutal regime tortured and killed people.
A teenager when Amin’s eight-year reign ended in 1979, Whitaker initially was aware of the man only as the despot depicted in the news.
“I just had a postage-stamp image of him. They created him as this savage, brutal guy. I remember this picture of him holding his fist up in a military-type uniform, and he was known as this crazy dictator,” Whitaker, 45, told The Associated Press at the Toronto International Film Festival. “That’s really all I knew until I started working on the character. Then it became much more vast. ...
“Hundreds of thousands of people died under his watch, so I’m not negating that. But the amount of charisma, humor, joy and verve he had. I had no idea of that, and it’s very clear when you watch him on tape, he was a massive showman.”
Preparing to play a dictator
Adapted from Giles Foden’s novel, the film spins a fictional narrative about a young Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) seeking adventure in Uganda who catches Amin’s eye and becomes personal physician — and ultimately trapped confidante — to the charming but ruthless ruler.
Whitaker fell somewhat under the man’s spell himself as he researched Amin, who died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003. Ugandans have curiously mixed feelings about Amin, abhorring the man for his bloody methods while admiring his progressive efforts to build schools and hospitals.
“I had to pass through the propaganda maze — ignore it, actually — and just go to the source,” said Whitaker, who researched the character through copious reading, studying video footage and talking with Ugandans about Amin.
“If we were in Uganda, we would know him intimately,” Whitaker said. “He would have killed someone we know or promoted someone we know. So it’s kind of easy. You get in a cab there, you’re going to hear story after story.”
Preparing for a role, Whitaker often immerses himself in the character’s world. For the lead role in “Bird,” Clint Eastwood’s film biography of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, Whitaker said he moved into a New York City loft “solely to be able to play the sax 24/7.”
For the lead in Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” Whitaker said he meditated two or three hours a day to get inside the head of his taciturn character, “so by the time I walked out on set, I was kind of in an odd space. I was, like, buzzing.”
For “The Last King of Scotland,” Whitaker painstakingly re-created Amin’s accent and submerged himself in African culture, visiting archaeological landmarks, subsisting on regional food staples such as green bananas and bean sauce, and trekking to the source of the Nile.
On set, Whitaker would maintain Amin’s accent and bearing between takes. His embodiment of Amin was so authentic it intimidated the film’s crew, co-star McAvoy said.
“I was in every scene in the film, so I saw the crew when Forest wasn’t on the set, and it was a completely different atmosphere. When Forest walked on the set and we’d been working all day, you’d just see everybody tense up totally,” McAvoy said. “But in a way, people focused more and worked harder, and everybody stepped up.”