World History
I finally had a chance to the see The Last King of Scotland last night. This movie was released last year. It won Forest Whitaker an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
The movie follows the adventures of Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan who through a series of adventures winds up on the staff of Idi Amin as his personal physician. He becomes more and more influential and is referred to by Amin's enemies as the White Rat. Garrigan slowly becomes aware of the evil he has become a part of and eventually with help manages to get out of Uganda.
The movie is "loose" history. Obviously, Idi Amin existed, he brutalized Uganda, and much of what is shown happened. However, the Scottish doctor never existed. Garrigan is loosely based on the real "White Rat" who was Englishman Bob Astles. You can read about him in this article titled Uganda's white Rat.
The parts about Amin's love of Scotland are true. He really was fascinated by Scottish history. It was rather disconcerting to see African "highlanders" marching in kilts with bagpipes but that was Uganda in the 70s.
Overall, I really liked this movie. It starts as a fun story with a naive Scottish doctor enjoying power by accident. But it quickly turns dark and it is easy to see how good people can become a part of horrible history. It is clear that the Garrigan character had blood on his hands. He did not mean for it to happen but it happened nonetheless. I think this is a recurring theme of history unfortunately. It is very easy for good people to get caught up in evil without ever meaning to and and most are never given the chance to atone for their actions. If you have not seen this film, I encourage you to watch it. It is worth the effort.
- 10,000 Bc
I was fortunate enough to catch a showing of 10,000 BC at the theater the other day. I enjoyed it very much. I thought the plot was slow at points but it was good overall. The film site notes of the film, "A prehistoric young mammoth hunter embarks on...
- A History Of Evil
This is an interesting and fun cartoon which mockingly traces the history of evil. The creator notes of the video, "The film was intended to show what people have believed in and pointed to as evil throughout history. It was meant to get you to think...
- Top 3 Worst War Films
Back in September, The Osprey Publishing Blog had a post on the Top 3 Worst War Films. I discovered this post via the 7th Military History Carnival. The carnival author noted, "I asked what the Top Three Worst War films were and what war films our readers...
- How The Scots Invented The Modern World
How the Scots Invented the Modern World. This is a book review by Julie Lorenzen. It gives a summary of the chapters in this book by Arthur Herman. In the book, he focuses on how the Scots made great contributions to the Western World. From the site:...
- End Of The Year: Night At The Museum
There are some movies that work really well for history classes, and some that do not. After watching a Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum 2 this weekend, I put it in the category of works really well. I did not find really any discrepancies...
World History
The Last King of Scotland
I finally had a chance to the see The Last King of Scotland last night. This movie was released last year. It won Forest Whitaker an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.The movie follows the adventures of Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan who through a series of adventures winds up on the staff of Idi Amin as his personal physician. He becomes more and more influential and is referred to by Amin's enemies as the White Rat. Garrigan slowly becomes aware of the evil he has become a part of and eventually with help manages to get out of Uganda.
The movie is "loose" history. Obviously, Idi Amin existed, he brutalized Uganda, and much of what is shown happened. However, the Scottish doctor never existed. Garrigan is loosely based on the real "White Rat" who was Englishman Bob Astles. You can read about him in this article titled Uganda's white Rat.
The parts about Amin's love of Scotland are true. He really was fascinated by Scottish history. It was rather disconcerting to see African "highlanders" marching in kilts with bagpipes but that was Uganda in the 70s.
Overall, I really liked this movie. It starts as a fun story with a naive Scottish doctor enjoying power by accident. But it quickly turns dark and it is easy to see how good people can become a part of horrible history. It is clear that the Garrigan character had blood on his hands. He did not mean for it to happen but it happened nonetheless. I think this is a recurring theme of history unfortunately. It is very easy for good people to get caught up in evil without ever meaning to and and most are never given the chance to atone for their actions. If you have not seen this film, I encourage you to watch it. It is worth the effort.
- 10,000 Bc
I was fortunate enough to catch a showing of 10,000 BC at the theater the other day. I enjoyed it very much. I thought the plot was slow at points but it was good overall. The film site notes of the film, "A prehistoric young mammoth hunter embarks on...
- A History Of Evil
This is an interesting and fun cartoon which mockingly traces the history of evil. The creator notes of the video, "The film was intended to show what people have believed in and pointed to as evil throughout history. It was meant to get you to think...
- Top 3 Worst War Films
Back in September, The Osprey Publishing Blog had a post on the Top 3 Worst War Films. I discovered this post via the 7th Military History Carnival. The carnival author noted, "I asked what the Top Three Worst War films were and what war films our readers...
- How The Scots Invented The Modern World
How the Scots Invented the Modern World. This is a book review by Julie Lorenzen. It gives a summary of the chapters in this book by Arthur Herman. In the book, he focuses on how the Scots made great contributions to the Western World. From the site:...
- End Of The Year: Night At The Museum
There are some movies that work really well for history classes, and some that do not. After watching a Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum 2 this weekend, I put it in the category of works really well. I did not find really any discrepancies...