We are not a game, Nicholas. We are real
"Did you think this was all a game? 'I will go to Africa, and I will play the white man with the natives!' Is that what you thought? We are not a game, Nicholas. We are real. This room, here — it is real. I think your death will be the first real thing that has happened to you."
This little speech by Amin in the film, considering all the paranoid and murderous acts we've seen him be behind throughout the film, and his general status as the bad guy, stood out to me as quite a strong message despite it all. Obviously he was a murderous tyrant, but in terms of the film I liked that brief lecture he gave to Nicholas towards the end.
Why? I think it highlighted the attitude that many people from developed countries have in regards to less developed countries, specifically their people, this idea of 'playing the white man', although it's not limited to a white/black thing and more a developed/less developed thing, and the people native to the countries they are going to, while their actions are likely good intentioned, come off as shallow and give off a perception that the people they are interacting with aren't real.
I've seen examples of people I've known go off to various African countries, often sponsored by their universities, under the guise of helping less fortunate people in those countries, but so often it comes off as merely an undertaking by people who actually have an extreme lack of knowledge or interest in the country they are going to and who's main aim, whether they really realise it or not, is merely to look good on their facebook page by posting pictures of them with the legions of shaven headed African children or adults smiling for their profile pictures, I won't say all, or even the majority who go have these aims, but I'd say a lot do. I think Amin's speech was just a brief acknowledgement of the fact that people aren't just background characters for your facebook page, they are real, they aren't a game, this is their life. share