The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981) Reviews

While Idi Umin Dada terrorized Uganda with a barbaric, 8-year, depotic rule, he portrayed himself to the world at large as a fat buffoon, albeit in military garb. How the press corps managed to perpetuate that image in the face of his army's rampage against an estimated 500,000 Ugandan victims of murder, torture, and imprisonment is unfathomable. This historical docudrama relates how Imin came to power, and does not spare the audience when it comes to exposing his barbarisms (dismembering his wife's body and forcing her children to look at it is one example of several). As the story of his rule unfolds, the world eventually "discovers" what the Ugandans have known all along, and Tanzanian forces oust Imin in 1979, saving the lives of countless prisoners and other victims of his unbridled violence. Although the movie portrays the horrors of his reign, the violence that is shown is an accurate view of reality, and far from the exploitative gore of a Hong Kong or Hollywood slasher flic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi