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The Last King of Scotland

amun1000

amun1000

Offroader
Tried to watch the last king of scotland last night but the land rovers spoilt it.
Its supposed to be 1970 but the Ugandan Army were using Series III (should have been IIA or II). Why oh why cant film people get land rover facts right. This is the second film thats set in an african country where the land rovers are incorrect. They also had delux bonnets - a feature that came much later ( i think )
 
De luxe bonnets available on 2a (according to parts catalogue!). Or do you mean the Optional Equipment bonnet fitted from 1973???? The recess is bigger on this later one.

But you are right, nothing more irritating than people not getting facts right in any type of media. Also nothing worse than working in any job and making a genuine mistake and loads of people coming back and pointing it out.:o

A&K
 
But the "ordinarys" will tell you you`re a geik and it doesn`t matter:D There was a play set in 1950 on the radio. One listener complained bitterly to the beeb stating that he could quite clearly hear a Collared Dove in the background and they hadn`t been introduced in UK till 55:D :D

Alex
 
I think it does matter - thats why they employ researchers. Why not just have them in a freelander then:D

As a side note theres a scene in the Battle of Britain where a pilot enters a house that has an electric door bell (white plastic ) and it annoys the hell out of me.

Andrew
 
I suppose it's down to availability of vehicles. US White Half tracks are always painted with a Black cross because proper SDKFz half tracks are so rare. So are the tanks.

It always makes me smile when I see WW2 planes flying over large Arable fields with "Tram lines" running across them. They are used for spraying and fertilizer application, since about the late 70's.

Chris
 
obviously the film was boring as well. If it was any good, you wouldn't be noticing the Land Rovers - it's all about suspension of disbelief!
 
Hmmm... If they'd bothered to actually GO to Uganda they would have been able to find plenty of Series II's and IIA's. However, I doubt if 99% of the moviegoing populace would know the difference. :)

What really annoys me is when radios are used to do things that are scientifically IMPOSSIBLE, such as when submarines call up base while submerged under the polar ice cap, or when a spy talks into a walkie talkie from Mogadishu to New York.

I am really looking forward to The Last King of Scotland which opens here on the 23rd Feb. I have been fascinated by Idi Amin ever since he came to power, and I lived and worked in Uganda in 2001, so I heard a lot about him, visited many of the places mentioned in books about him etc.

The most chilling feeling was one afternoon. I was on the roof of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, looking around at the beautiful gardens with magnificent pink and purple tropical flowers. I remebered that Amin had dragged 74-year old Dora Bloch from her hospital bed into the gardens and bludgeoned her to death with a sledge-hammer because he was so angry about the Israeli raid on Entebbe. Looking around the gardens, I couldn't help but be moved about thinking where she might have been murdered.

Marc
 
Marc Lurie said:
The most chilling feeling was one afternoon. I was on the roof of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, looking around at the beautiful gardens with magnificent pink and purple tropical flowers. I remebered that Amin had dragged 74-year old Dora Bloch from her hospital bed into the gardens and bludgeoned her to death with a sledge-hammer because he was so angry about the Israeli raid on Entebbe. Looking around the gardens, I couldn't help but be moved about thinking where she might have been murdered.

Marc
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That's disgracefully spooky Marc - haven't stopped shivering since I read it. Nice happy Africa stories please. OK I know that's not the real world.:rolleyes: Kate
 
adrianandkate said:
That's disgracefully spooky Marc - haven't stopped shivering since I read it. Nice happy Africa stories please.
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Sorry Kate. But the history of Uganda is so intertwined in the history of Idi Amin that you can't escape it, particularly in Kampala.

Aparently, Amin sometimes threw people over the balcony of the (now) Sheraton Hotel. I've stayed there, and often wondered what it would have been like at the hotel under Amin's rule.

Also, I used to drive past Makyinde Prison most evenings, and I alsways got a chilling feeling driving past, knowing what used to go on there. Amin delighted in getting his ex-Army general to bludgeon each other to death in front of him. He'd give the hammer to one of them and would force him at gunpoint to kill the other one. Then the guards would either kill him, or put him back in a cell to "play" with hime at a later stage.

Amin was not without funny moments. He built a small city model on the Ssesse Island in Lake Victoria, and he called it "Cape Town". He would send in his airforce to bomb "Cape Town" on special occasions, while declaring how he was going to crush the apartheid regime in South Africa. :rolleyes:

He also awarded himself the Victoria Cross, the cheeky bu&&er :D

He also, with sublime bravado, actually bombed Bukavu in Tanzania. This lead to Tanzanians getting quite pi$$ed off with him, and a horde of Tanzanian irregular soldiers went on the rampage and invaded Uganda. In less than two weeks the Tanzanian IRREGULAR soldiers had raped, pillaged, and looted all the way from Bukavu to Kampala. Amin's illustrious army proved to be nothing but a paper tiger. You still see the occasional Ugandan army tank abandoned on the side of the road. (See attached).

I must say, Uganda is a stunningly beautiful country. I could easily live there, and the people are very friendly.

Marc
 

Attachments

  • Landy and tank on Masindi road.webp
    Landy and tank on Masindi road.webp
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Marc Lurie said:
Hmmm... If they'd bothered to actually GO to Uganda they would have been able to find plenty of Series II's and IIA's.
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It's time for me to eat humble pie. :blush: The movie WAS shot in Uganda. It was originally going to be shot in South Africa, but the director changed his mind after visiting Uganda and realising that nowhere else in the world looks like Uganda. That, and the fact that the President, Yoweri Museveni dropped VAT on all purchases by the film company, prompted them to make the movie there.

Apparently they were warmly received by the ever-friendly Ugandans, and this no doubt helped to make the movie memorable.

It was shot on a very small budget ($8 million) for such a big movie.

The movie premiered in Kampala, Uganda last night, and was attended by the stars, and the President. There's an interesting article here for anyone interested.
 
I went to see The Last King of Scotland last night.

I'ts frikkin' brilliant. What a powerful movie, with a magnificent performance by Forrest Whittaker.

If there's one movie you have to see this year, it's this one.

Marc
 
Apart from the obvious Insanity, Why did Idi Amin claim to be the King of Scotland? I do remember he gave himself the Victoria Cross.

We had quite a few Asians in Derby who had been thrown out of Uganda. Came with nothing, literally what they stood up in, worked hard and built up many large Family Businesses. Atwals was one, took over most of Normanton. Old Mr Atwal was a very nice man.

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

It's an interesting story, and you really should see the movie. But let me try some sort of explanation from my point of view. I have been fascinated by the Idi Amin story since the 70's, and then having an opportunity to live and work in Uganda gave me a lot of unique opportunities to talk with people who lived through the regime.

When Idi came to power he was a very poular leader. He was charismatic, very friendly, a "big" man in every way. He had been a Warrant Officer in the Kings African Rifles, (he' became a Leiutenant in the Ugandan Army until Obote promoted him to General) and had overrthrown the disgusting, filthy dictator Obote who was, in every way, many times worse than Idi ever was. But he was really just a sergeant with no political or economic experience.

The people expected him to sort out Uganda's problems. They expected him to build roads, build houses, build the economy etc. but he didn't have the faintest idea how to do it.

He would appoint a Minister, and instruct the Minister to build houses. He had no idea what was involved in actually doing the job. I think that the pressure on him to deliver was so tough that he discovered that if he made jokes, the media would focus on his jokes, and not concentrate on his his failures.

Now, you must contextualise the era. The 70's was characterised by the tin-pot African dictator. Mobuto in Zaire, Bokassa in CAR, Senghor in Senegal etc. Idi Amin was the perfect looking, and perfect sounding, tinpot dictator. He reinforced racial stereotypes, and gave the west something to laugh at, and something to look at and say "See, blacks can't run a country".

Idi played the stereotype for all its worth, and it drew attention towards his personality and away from his failure to deliver.

I'm not saying that he was completely sane! There were clearly aspects of an unsettled personality in the man. He was brutal, unbelievable jealous and paranoid. When his Minister was unable to build houses, it became a personal attack on Idi, and he believed that he had been betrayed by the Minister. He was a cold-blooded killer, but then he was trained as a soldier, and in his particular context there's little difference between a wartime foe and a political enemy. I'm not excusing his barbarism, rather I'm simply understanding it.

The interesting thing about Idi is that most people's perceptions of Uganda is completely coloured by his regime, yet he only ruled for a measly 8 years. Obote as lader for years in total, and Museveni has been the leadrer for the past 22 years, however people still characterise Uganda with Amin in mind.

Go see the movie. ;)

Regards,
Marc
 
TEMPL4R said:
We had quite a few Asians in Derby who had been thrown out of Uganda.
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Most Asians who left went to either England or Canada. The vast majority rebuilt their lives in their new country, and became very succesful. There seems to have been a specific entrepreneurial bent amongst Ugandan Asians.

When I was there, Museveni was trying to entice Asians back to Uganda by offering them their old businesses back and offering all sorts of enticements. Many have moved back, and Uganda is quite a pleasant place to live in at the moment.

I had a magical experience in Kampala: There was an Asian run hardware store (a very large store) that was bricked up and sealed before they left the country. They had recently returned, and found their store untouched after 30 years. It was an old fashioned store like you probably would have found in England in the 30's, with bins of nails and the like, and tools hanging on the walls and implements from the roof.

I went into the store shortly after they re-opened, and the place was like a treasure trove. They had racks and racks of imperial nuts and bolts, old fashioned copper rivets and rivet sets, bench lathes in mint condition, tools etc. They still had the old prices on them! Unfortunately I missed the bargain of a lifetime. The owners uncovered a British made Myford lathe with a bed about 750mm. They sold it to someone for $500. (Is that about 250 Pounds? :eek: ) It was in PERFECT condition, still in grease and unused.

Anyway, I wandered around that store for a long time, just soaking in the atmosphere of a byegone era.
 
My best mates family came from uganda, well half his family, he is half English and half indian. His mum is the indian half, her family owned and ran a big coffee plantation over there (well I think it was coffee), they were very successful and employed many ugandans. Idi Amien decided he liked the plantation and kicked them out of the country in just the clothes they stood up in. She came over here, with nothing, but now owns a very successfull travel business, she started from scratch by herself. her family plantation became the houses parliment (or equivelent) in uganda.

The ugandan government has recently tried to tempt back many of the asians, as the economy took abit of a dive when they were kicked out as all their busenesses were shut down. Needless to say most of them never want to step foot in uganda again.
 
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