As Amin, the American actor Forest Whitaker is extraordinary. He makes you see Amin’s charisma and cunning and understand the way in which he could (not that there’s any record he ever did) reach out and embrace a younger, more impressionable man and woo him with sexual opportunities and luxuries and fast cars, until the young fellow himself is all but a party to the activities of what Amin called the “State Research Bureau,” which seemed mostly to involve bayonet use in the presidential mansion basement. Whitaker also makes you feel quite a bit of Amin’s paranoia, dating from an assassination attempt and exacerbated by tribal animosities, that produced the high death count. Sweaty, physically imposing, wilting through his medal-festooned tunics, he seems like someone out of O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones.”

Here’s the full story

Advertisement

Arkansas Times: Your voice in the fight

Are you tired of watered-down news and biased reporting? The Arkansas Times has been fighting for truth and justice for 50 years. As an alternative newspaper in Little Rock, we are tough, determined, and unafraid to take on powerful forces. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, we are making a difference. But we can't do it without you. Join the 3,400 paid subscribers who support our great journalism and help us hire more writers. Sign up for a subscription today or make a donation of as little as $1 and help keep the Arkansas Times feisty for years to come.

Previous article Review: Raitt and Keb’ Mo’ were sensational Next article More praise for Nicholson, The Departed