**1/2 (out of ****)
and
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
*** (out of ****)
2006
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, Kagiso Kuypers, Arnold Vosloo, Michael Sheen, and David Harewood
Directed by Edward Zwick & written by Charles Leavitt and C. Gaby Mitchell
143 min R
Starring Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, and Gillian Anderson
Directed by Kevin Macdonald & written by Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan, from the novel by Giles Foden
121 min R
“Blood Diamond” still MEANS all the same things as it would have meant if it were made as the brutally quick 100-minute shoot-‘em-up it ought to be. The only difference is that, instead of that meaning being a subtext to be drawn from the action, it has to be spelled out in dialogue, speeches, title cards, and TV interviews (no narration this time though). At the end, a character goes to the front of a boardroom to make a speech and I said to myself, “if we hear him, it’s two stars, but if we only see him, it’s two-and-a-half.” All that takes any extra 45 minutes, totaling over two hours. Which, if you don’t go to the movies very often, must make the whole shebang seem awful impressive.
I’m gonna summarize “Blood Diamond” in a second, and it’s gonna sound good, and the good parts are pretty sweet, but keep in mind they’re interrupted by “what we’re learning” dialogue interludes. The movie is about the ruthlessness and devastation caused by the diamond trade in West Africa, and it uses a vaguely “Good-Bad-Ugly” chase to illustrate its point. A white mercenary (Leonardo DiCaprio) out for a priceless diamond strikes a bargain with a black fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) out to rescue his son, setting the two of them on a bloody journey through revolutionaries, war-torn villages, corrupt officials, and overwhelmed hospitals. When bullets whiz, stuff blows up, and DiCaprio’s pops caps in bad guy’s ten-rings, “Blood Diamond” sings. Trim the exposition and Jennifer Connelly’s “I’m gonna tell the audience its lesson” journalist and we’d have a zippy little genre movie.
But you say, wait-wait-wait, we’re making a movie about Africa and the hero is a WHITE GUY? Really, in order to highlight the racial politics of how the continent and the First World’s relationship to it works, one of the two leads has to be white. It’s just unfair that the white guy gets to be dynamic, conflicted, learn a lesson, and essentially the main character, while the black guy is a noble savage who begins and ends the movie without flaw, existing primarily to teach the white guy a lesson. The director is Edward Zwick, who helmed the whiteguy’s-view-of-black-soldiers epic “Glory” and the whiteguy’s-view-of-Japanese-soldiers epic “The Last Samurai.” Maybe he just feels disingenuous if he doesn’t have a white lead.
With his “Lethal Weapon 2” accent and his plethora of dialogue, its easy to see why DiCaprio’s turn in this film was picked for Oscar recognition over his more subtle work in “The Departed.” It’s a good performance, and it’s also worth noting that, despite his prettyboy heartthrob splash in “Titanic” and his follow-up “The Man in the Iron Mask,” DiCaprio has chosen challenging roles over the allure of being a matinee idol. “The Aviator,” “Gangs of New York,” and “The Departed” aren’t romantic comedies, voiceovers in Pixar films, package-out superheroes, or Bruckheimers. (His only real concession to mainstream appeasement is his work in “Catch Me If You Can,” which is much too amiable to complain about.)
More successful in Africa is “The Last King of Scotland,” also the story of Africa through the eyes of a white guy. In fact, it’s practically “Training Day,” with Africa instead of the ghetto, a young white doctor (James McAvoy of “Narnia”) instead of a young white cop, and bloodthirsty dictator Idi Amin (sad-eyed Forest Whitaker) instead of Denzel Washington. At first, the white guy is charmed by the boyish and masculine freedom fighter, then gradually realizes, hey, this dude’s nuts.
“The Last King” is Forest Whitaker’s “Capote,” in which an eternally-capable character actor rides a real-life eccentric to well-deserved Oscar gold. Despite that Oscar, he might technically be a supporting character; it’s not inside his head that we get and he isn’t so much dynamic as he is gradually revealed. We’re inside the head of McAvoy’s white doctor, which limits the movie’s perspective. He changes and learns a lesson, even if he lacks Whitaker’s flamboyance and often fades into a set of eyes for us to look through.
Their relationship is more interesting than DiCaprio and Hounsou. Whitaker’s Amin is like a giant, out-of-control child – he does horrible things, but because he’s played by a giant droopy-eyed teddy bear we’re never sure what to make of him. McAvoy’s doctor is equally slippery. Like Ewan McGregor but with less personality, he is often just a jaunty young punk out to get laid, and we’re never sure if we want to love or hate this dashing clod.
Compared to the drag-out style of Oscar time, “The Last King” is a raw, intense, and tightly-bundled ride, not a prestige picture but a thriller, with oodles of local color crammed into its quick two hours. At once vibrant, faded, and washed-out, like it’s really from the ‘70s, director Kevin Macdonald (“Touching the Void”) keeps his camera restless and subjective – as if we know to be nervous even before our protagonist does.
Finished Sunday, January 28, 2007
Copyright © 2007 Friday & Saturday Night