See more of The Last King of Scotland by logging into Facebook. Message this Page, learn about upcoming events and more. If you don't have a Facebook account, you can create one to see more of this Page. Ich stimme zu, dass diese Seite Cookies f Catching up on homework: Well, we finally got around to slipping The Last King of Scotland into the DVD player. For some reason it took a while to brin. As Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, Forest Whitaker gives one of the greatest performances of modern movie history. This is Amin's incredible story as seen through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scotsman who. The Last King of Scotland; Author: Giles Foden: Country: United Kingdom: Language: English: Genre: Novel: Publisher: Faber and Faber. Post anything (from anywhere!), customize everything, and find and follow what you love. Create your own Tumblr blog today. The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden and a great selection of similar Used, New and Collectible Books available now at AbeBooks.com. For some reason it took a while to bring ourselves to watch the bloody mayhem that must be a part of any movie about Idi Amin. After that unfolds a preposterous tale? The doctor can be rather plucky with Amin but generally ignores the growing evidence of the hideous truth. He busies himself with knocking up one of Amin's wives and then getting her an abortion. Unfortunately the boss is wise to him and has him hung by hooks thrust into his flesh. Far more fortunately, this hanging takes place at the airport at the exact moment when some Entebbe hostages are being released. A noble colleague sacrifices himself to free the bloodied doctor, who slinks off with the Entebbe hostages. His doomed savior admonishes him to tell the world of the outrages perpetrated in Uganda. This series of astonishing events made us curious about the truth upon which the story was based. It was late, so we were left with Wikipedia. Twice married, he was an English adventurer who worked for Amin while running a pineapple farm as well as an aviation service. Not that many people will see The Last King of Scotland. And how many of them will walk away thinking they've seen something that is more true than not? The bottom line is that Hollywood has little respect for the truth. When he was making JFK, Oliver Stone became enraged when George Lardner, a Washington Post reporter who had covered the assassination of John Kennedy, got hold of a script and denounced the story as preposterous. It wasn't fair, Stone said, to judge an unfinished movie by a screenplay. Pressed about whether the misrepresentations in the screenplay wouldn't also be in the film, Stone said the movie would represent an . The only time we can remember that this approach was stuffed up the industry's nose was when the 1. The Hurricane was attacked for misrepresenting facts about boxer Rubin Carter. That episode did not teach the industry caution. Instead, a lot of time and expense is devoted to re- creating the look and feel of a period with no regard to what actually occurred. Many will defend the Hollywood way as an exercise of the artist's prerogative. And obviously there are many immortal stories told in historical settings. But it would have been peculiar if Thackeray suggested that Vanity Fair was . If you have a strong story? Diddling with history, as we've seen, can be a dangerous business. Another : More scoop on the earlier report that Brad Grey was denied credit on The Departed. The academy is searching its soul. Last night, the academy decided that Brad Grey cannot accept an Oscar should The Departed win in the best picture category. The academy also decided that only three of five producers will be permitted to accept the award for Little Miss Sunshine should it win. The academy giveth, the academy taketh away. The academy has said it will let the Producers Guild decide the issue of who deserves a . The guild attempts to vet the question thoroughly. It decided that Grey didn't deserve the . But it also named five producers for Little Miss Sunshine. Here's where the academy parted ways with the guild. The academy has held that no more than three people should go on stage to receive the best picture award. So it booted two of the five Sunshine producers. It's a tough break for Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger, who first shopped the script around Hollywood, recruited the directors, and who, most importantly, were sufficiently involved throughout to get the . But their picture did set a Sundance record when it sold for $1. It has silenced those who mocked Fox Searchlight for overpaying, as the film has grossed almost $1. But no producer wants to be the one who was treated so unfairly that the academy had to reconsider its rules. Recall that Grey had helped to put the movie together as a manager/producer before he assumed his current role. The Producers Guild had denied him a . The academy generally follows the guild's lead on this issue, but Grey nonetheless appealed. Now, that appeal has apparently been denied, meaning that should The Departed win on Oscar night, Grey will have to content himself with a quick hug in the aisle. Since the film was released by Warner, and Paramount has Babel in contention, some in the industry feel that's the appropriate result. Men in Black: Creative Artists Agency has just moved into its formidable new digs (our friends at Defamer have already noted the terror that struck . The new location presumably will be quite comfortable once they get the air- conditioning trouble straightened out. Meanwhile, CAA's rivals can content themselves with the image of CAA agents, for once, sweating. But what of CAA's old home at the intersection of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards? Pei- designed monument to CAA co- founder Michael Ovitz's lofty dream? It seems just yesterday that ground was broken there with a feng shui ceremony and a flight of white birds. Well, the feng shui seems to have worked well for the agency, which dominates the industry. But it didn't do much for the chi between the former CAA partners who own the now- empty building. Last May, the Los Angeles Times speculated that after CAA departed, the building would become . But no one has stepped up. The building is owned by Ovitz and erstwhile partners Ron Meyer (the head of Universal Studios), producer Bill Haber, and former CAA Chief Financial Officer Robert Goldman. CAA has rented the building from them since 1. More than a year ago, the owners hired the Cushman & Wakefield brokerage firm to lease the building. But then, nothing happened. The building has a curving facade, and the space inside is idiosyncratic and difficult to reconfigure. With its soaring atrium, a tenant would be paying a lot for space that can't be put to use. When Ovitz was working on the plans, Weiss says, . The canvas is gigantic. It would be a problem, in fact, to get it out of the building. Sotheby's has apparently advised that it can't be removed from its stretcher without damaging it. Meyer has since said that at the time, he was like an abused spouse in a trance. He could hardly have imagined the acrimony that would follow when the marriage split up, as it did in 1. Matters didn't improve when Ovitz later tried to purchase land in Malibu that Meyer had picked out for his dream house.) Now Meyer must wait for Ovitz to rent, sell, buy. Through a spokesman, Ovitz dismissed that idea. Certainly Ovitz has a big, expensive collection of modern art (not to mention an ego that could use a new monument, following his ill- fated tenure at Disney and the failure of his management company). And Lichtenstein is already there. Ovitz didn't respond to queries about what he intends to do with the building. This year's race for the best picture Oscar is starting to resemble the 2. By now, you know that Dreamgirls pulled in the most nominations. It is fascinating to imagine how this news is being received at Paramount headquarters, where Babel (from the studio's Vantage label) got seven nominations, including the big ones. All has turned out well for studio chief Brad Grey. He got to issue a press release proclaiming that his studio led with 1. Dream. Works . African or African- American actors got five of 2. Forest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Jennifer Hudson, and Djimon Hounsou). And the academy recognized all three of the three amigos. Some think that since only Babel and The Departed were nominated in the influential editing category, the race comes down to those two. Others point out that a contingent of academy voters hates Babel and dreads nothing more than seeing it become this year's Crash. Another group seems inclined to go only so far for Scorsese. There are a lot of factions out there. The article originally and incorrectly identified a hijacked Air France airliner as an El Al airliner.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2016
Categories |