General Idi Amin – A Self Portrait (1974)

General Idi Amin – A Self Portrait (1974)
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Synopsis: Idi Amin virtually directs this compelling, fascinating and revealing documentary.

This documentary on Idi Amin is an exceptional film on several counts. Primarily that it got made at all is a considerable achievement as General Amin was not known for his tolerance. Had Amin sensed even for a moment that the film was in any way designed to expose him for being the murdering bully that he was, it would never have seen the light of day. The filmmakers were very wise in their handling of Amin and realised that the ogre would only let them shoot the film as long as he was calling the shots, and so it was to be.

The film was shot in effect with Amin himself orchestrating the camera’s movements and deciding precisely what aspects of his personality he would like to share with audiences and which parts he would prefer to keep hidden. In allowing Amin to shape his self-portrait, the filmmakers have brilliantly devised a method by which the pompous, boastful moron would need little goading in exposing himself as the buffoon he was. It comes as no surprise to hear that audiences reacted with roars of laughter rather than reflect on the fact that behind the bumbling and rather charming buffoon lurked a man who had to send thousands to their death.

The man was/is a deranged, overgrown bully who somehow part barged, part joked, and part charmed his way incredulously to the highest offices of the land, in control of the destiny of millions. A man who may have lacked polish, a classy education and worldly savvy but who made up for those deficiencies with his ruthless survival instinct.

It doesn’t take long for the viewer to start catching on to the fact that Amin is in a league of his own when it comes to expressing himself. He goes around and around in ridiculously inane tangents when discussing politics or military manoeuvres (a favourite subject). The sequence when he holds court over his ministers must be seen to be believed. “The women must be told to pull their socks up,” exclaims Amin to a bunch of petrified fools who are busily scratching away in their notepads for fear of attracting the wrath of their great leader. When Amin enacts his capturing of the Golan Heights, the bit is another quite brilliant sequence illustrating the complete insanity of the man and his abject detachment from reality. There are times when one can sense the camera crew egging Amin on, feeling that he is babbling absolute gibberish of the most priceless kind.

One thing about the film that is evident is that Amin adores the fact that the camera is on him. Here is a man who is clearly in love with himself and expects everyone else to be the same. He is, without a doubt, a very charming man with a fantastic sense of humour. He is canny enough to realise that this disarming charm and humour is his greatest asset, and he often seems to diffuse situations when he is asked prickly questions or is on the spot by responding with some humour. This humour seems to disarm his opponents completely, and he somehow barges his way through situations without the slightest hint of opposition. Amin was in charge of the way this film was to turn out. Still, he didn’t realise that in blowing his own trumpet so pompously and loudly, he would expose himself – a hilarious, charming fat man who was also a deranged, mentally deficient, self-worshipping mass murderer of the worst kind. The film also suggests that the cult classic take on Idi Amin by Sharad Patel entitled The Rise and Fall of Amin is hardly the slanderous exploitationer that one took for granted. This film shows that Joseph Olitta has done even a more satisfactory job than one had imagined because his rendition of Amin in Patel’s film is amazingly accurate. The tendency to take most of the events depicted in Patel’s film as being vindictive is unjust. As it turns out, the movie was chillingly precise, with every single event described well documented. Amin was perhaps even more dangerously out of touch with reality than history suggests.

It’s effortless to sit back and howl at the delusions of Idi Amin and his political philosophising. One could laugh for hours on end but then spare a thought for those families who lost their loved ones due to his bloodthirsty megalomania. Idi Amin remains alive and well, living as a guest of the Saudi government (like another ex-leader somewhat closer to home), where he was exiled after his catastrophic regime was overthrown in the mid-’70s. Schroeder’s is an excellent documentary film that captures the man in his true colours, precisely as he would like to have regarded. A favourite line from the movie is when Amin describes how Golda Meir of Israel would provide “very good entertainments” for him when he visited Israel. Countless moments ought to have the viewer splits; the bits when he is chatting to the animals, the bit when he explains how he is at one with the people and how much they love him, the bit when he describes his brand of democracy.

Amin was able to shift alliances without actually ever really changing any policies except for a few decorative slogans here and there. When he was with the American’s, it was all Liberty and Freedom. When he split with them and the Israeli’s he adopted a sort of Nasser-like revolutionary nationalist pan Afro-Arab rhetoric, which was then followed by his shift to the left when words such as Imperialism started to flow with great ease. Amin’s logic is staggering, and only a genius on his wavelength could even hope to follow the twisted train of thought and hallucinatory military strategies.

And finally, how can one forget those “voices that come to me from God”! Idi Amin should have remained a boxer. How he ever came to become president of a nation will always boggle the mind. Still, then Ronald Reagan was elected president of the US for two terms, and the Soviets had Brezhnev, who was virtually brain dead when he gave the command for the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in ’79. We currently have Donald Trump looming on the horizon – so clearly, anything goes! Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the DVD is that Amin tried to enforce some cuts to the film upon discovering a few sequences that didn’t turn out to his liking. The general decided to use the French community in Uganda as hostage and gathered them all forcibly into one Kampala Hotel, where they were “refused permission to leave”. He then gave the French families the number of the director Schroeder and told them that if he (Schroeder) wanted the safety of his fellow citizens, he would make the three cuts Amin was demanding!