Amin: The Rise and Fall (1982) International Film Marketing/Drama RT: 95 minutes Rated R (strong graphic violence, gore, torture, sexual content including an attempted rape, brief nudity) Director: Sharad Patel Screenplay: Wade Huie Music: Christopher Gunning Cinematography: Harvey Harrison Release date: May 1982 (US) Cast: Joseph Olita, Thomas Baptiste, Leonard Trolley, Geoffrey Keen, Louis Mahoney, Andre Maranne, Denis Hills, Tony Sibbald, Norbert Okare, Ka Vundla. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *
When it comes to exploiting real-life tragedies for box office gain, the makers of Guyana: Cult of the Damned have a special spot in Hell reserved just for them. The fictionalized account of the 1978 tragedy that claimed over 900 lives is a sick, vile, depraved, nauseating pile of garbage that never should have seen the inside of theaters. Artistically and morally bankrupt, it’s detestable on every single level known (and unknown) to man. It also presents something of a paradox. It’s so terrible it has to be seen to be believed, but nobody should ever subject themselves to this abomination passing itself off as cinema. Okay, enough about that unpleasantness.
Contrary to what you might infer from the opening, this is actually a review of Amin: The Rise and Fall, sort of a docudrama/exploitation hybrid dealing with the tyrannical reign of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. To be honest, it’s a weird one. It suffers from an identity crisis of sorts. It wants to be seen as a serious film, but it spends more time wallowing in blood than examining its subject with any real depth. It shows Amin, played by Kenyan actor Joseph Olita, as a larger-than-life figure who’s both brute and buffoon. In many ways, he’s a lot like depraved Roman emperor Caligula. To the movie’s credit, it’s not as sickening as the notorious 1979 biopic starring Malcolm McDowell.
As I recall, Amin: The Rise and Fall did pretty good business when it landed in theaters in spring ’82. It wasn’t good reviews that attracted audiences. Critics hated it, decrying the level of brutal violence depicted in the film. For many (me included), that seals the deal. I wanted to see it, but I knew what my parents’ answer would be so I didn’t even bother asking. What’s funny is they had no problem letting me see Death Wish II around that same time. Funny how parents’ minds work, isn’t it? I finally saw it in ’94 courtesy of Movies Unlimited. I felt a small sense of triumph at being able to cross it off my list of unseen movies.
I didn’t really think of Amin: The Rise and Fall again until I came across it on YouTube. I thought it might be interesting to revisit it. As you all know, I just LOVE to write bad reviews of bad movies. That’s where we run into a bit of a speed bump. I don’t hate Amin: The Rise and Fall. I don’t like it either. To be frank, I don’t know how to react to it. It’s not a question of it being a bad movie. It is a bad movie. Directed by Sharad Patel (his only directorial effort), it’s cheap, poorly made and badly acted. Other than Amin, there’s zero character development. Characters, like surgeon Dr. Oloya (Baptiste, The Wild Geese) and Amin’s British aide (Trolley), pop up now and then to little avail. Others, like any of Amin’s five wives, show up briefly before disappearing without serving any function. The narrative is disjointed. The actors re-enact major events like the Entebbe raid, the imprisonment of British journalist Denis Hills (playing himself) and the Uganda-Tanzania War that brought about the end of Amin’s reign of terror in ’79, but the film makes no attempt to tie them together cohesively. It’s like reading an outline of a term paper on Amin. The score by Christopher Gunning consists mainly of dramatic notes before horrific acts of violence and music that sounds culled from a 70s cop show.
What ultimately saves Amin: The Rise and Fall from a zero-star rating is Olita whose performance as Amin is…. well, something else. It’s convincing in that the actor does resemble the infamous dictator who insisted on being called “Idi Amin Dada, Conqueror of the British Empire” after the UK broke diplomatic relations with Uganda. He depicts Amin as a man of many different personalities, all of them out of control. That’s a nice way of saying he’s freaking insane! When Russian diplomats try to leave the country on his orders, Amin catches up with them at the airport to tell them he was just kidding. He begs them to stay before playing a tune on a concertina. Most of the time, he’s ordering the deaths of people he sees as enemies. They die horribly. They’re shot by firing squads or beaten and tortured by his men. Two guys are decapitated. Amin orders the corpse of one of his wives dismembered and shown to their children. One guy is burned to death in the trunk of his car. Bodies are thrown in mass graves or fed to crocodiles. One scene shows Amin cutting a piece of flesh from a body and consuming it.
Now comes the tricky part. Do I recommend Amin: The Rise and Fall or not? It’s a bad movie, that’s been established. However, I think it would be unfair to leave it at that. It’s not that simple. For one thing, it has the guts to do what Guyana: Cult of the Damned didn’t. It doesn’t dramatize the situation. Real names and dates are used. That’s a point in its favor albeit a small one. For another, it sincerely believes it’s treating its subject with reverence. It’s even dedicated to Amin’s victims. Some would say it’s a cheap move on the filmmaker’s part, an insult to the memory of the nearly half a million innocent people that died under Amin’s regime. Either way, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
I guess Amin: The Rise and Fall is best seen as a curiosity. It’s exploitation filmmaking with serious intentions. It’s rotten, but never boring. I can’t recommend it, but I can’t NOT recommend it either. It’s one of those movies you have to see for yourself to believe.
