Cheap General Idi Amin Dada - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Idi Amin) (Barbet Schroeder) Price

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Customer Reviews of General Idi Amin Dada - Criterion Collection

Into the mind of evil
General Idi Amin Dada was one of the most notorious dictators the world has ever seen. He is best know for orquestrating the deaths of over half a million Ugandans and expelling Jews and Asians from the country back in the 1970s. The Criterion Collection recently re-released Barbet Schroeder's documentary about the tyrant with brillantly remastered scenes. The film was shoot during the height of Amin's presidency. Although many parts of the first are just comically, one has to wonder how this man even became a head of state. Amin spends a great part of the film preparing his troops to fight the 'impending' war in Golan Heights. Quite possibly the most controversial moment in the film is when the interviewer asks Amin about his comments in a newspaper article saying that he said more Jews should have been killed during the Holocaust. Amin starts to laugh uncontrollably for a couple of minutes after that. He later says in the film that his country would welcome Palestinian terrorists who brought a hijacked El-AL plane to the country. Coincidentally a week after filmming, Palestinians did actually hijack a Israeli plane and brought it to Entebbe. Amin is also seen in the film making hypocritical statements about women in government and Ugandans being more 'revolutionary' (Check out the revolutionary jazz band at the beginning of the film). The DVD also features an amazing interview with the director. Schroeder talks about how he got Amin to do that memorably bizarre cabinet meeting where he criticizes his staff for not being 'revolutionary.' This is a great film that gets into the mind of evil.

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From local bully to world statesman
Did you ever wonder what would happen if some random person was suddenly the head of a country? Is it really that complex to be a national leader? I guess we've answered this in America since 2000, but prior to then it was an interesting "what if?". <
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>Well, "what if" happened in Uganda in 1971. A large ex-boxer named Idi Amin seized power in a coup and suddenly was formulating economic policy and thinking deep thoughts about complex world issues like peace in the Middle East. What happens when the local not-too-bright bully is suddenly running the nation? Very bad things! Cabinet ministers turn up dead, the government is run like the local grade school (three tardies and you get sent home), the economic policy is "revolutionary" (meaning very, very screwed up), and the President cares more about feeding crocodiles and winning bogus swimming contests than actually running the country. Oh, and several hundred thousand Ugandans die along the way. <
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>The DVD gets repetitive, but is still worth watching for the sheer insanity that this was the way an actual country was run for a decade. There are plenty of other dictators that killed millions of their countrymen in the 20th century, but none that allowed a documentary crew to follow them around for a couple of days so the world could see how completely ignorant they really were. It would be a great farce if this stupidity didn't cost around 400,000 Ugandans their lives.

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Monster talks up Values! Monster plays Accordion!
Lots of folks have said that Barbet Schroeder's cinematic masterpiece and ballsy documentary "General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait" is chilling and horrifying. Let's set the record straight: no, it's not. <
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>It's funny. It's downright hysterical. And it's absolutely REQUIRED viewing to get a better perspective of this Ugandan success story, this uniquely self-made man, this 6 foot 4 250 pound colossus of sheer destruction and unabetted cannibalism, Ugandan heavyweight boxing champ, designer of epaulette-and-jodphur laden uniforms, former British colonial army sergeant, Army Chief of Staff under doomed former Ugandan President Milton Obote, and once-and-future King of the Sea. Oh, and according to Idi, he could talk to the lions and the crocodiles, too. <
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>Wow---Idi Amin lived a crazy life, didn't he? And Barbet Schroeder, bless him and his intergalactic-extra-gigantic man-orbs, managed to catch all of this insanity on film. That film is "General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait". <
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>WATCH!---as the friendly, helpful, think globally act locally Idi Amin---- <
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>*talks to the animals, including crocodiles and lions! <
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>*shoots his AK-47 and stomps around in his designer camouflage gear! <
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>*stages a mock invasion of the Golan heights, with helicopters and tanks! Watch Idi point out all his menacing metallic armored monsters like a 3-year-old schoolkid! <
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>*Dresses down a cowering cabinet (the foreign minister is later found floating upside down in the Nile, ah well), and chews out a bunch of doctors for drunkeness. In the Islamic Shiny Happy World of Idi Amin, cannibalism was in! Torture was in! Invading Tanzania and killing Kenyan students was in! Taking a toddle was, evidently, way *way* out. <
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>*Wins a swimming contest! <
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>*Shakes a spear threateningly and plays the accordion at a state function and dancing party! <
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>*Basically performs smashingly as a perfect Third-World villain (with a striking resemblance to child-actor and "Diff'rent Strokes" star Gary Coleman---or is that just me?) who could easily be a central casting dream from the old "Johnny Quest" cartoon! <
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>Really, Barbet Schroeder was an amazing filmmaker. More amazing is that he got what he did---more than could be believed---on film. And the amazing thing is, Idi Amin gave him full, unfettered access! Amin thought this would be a propoganda coup! Schroeder just lets Idi Amin be Idi Amin, and it is marvellous to watch the General expound: on war, on Uganda, on destiny, on boxing, on the Jews, on Hitler. Especially Hitler. Barbet risks his own neck to ask Idi a pointed question on his fascist idol, and Idi grins, and glowers, and chuckles amiably, and then purrs "why do you ask me about Hitler? Why Hitler"? <
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>Why, indeed, Idi. Why indeed.