Mobutu, roi du Zaïre (1999) User Reviews

Mobutu - He was one bad mother***ker

[hammy-3 · 7/10 · 11 October 1999]

This is a pretty standard documentary aimed at an audience largely desenitised to the horrors of the modern world. it's a detailed account of the rise to power of the eponymous, cynical Congolese (Later, at his own whim Zairean) dictator, which doesn't pull any punches in identifying his benefactors in the CIA and European governments. It presents Mobutu as being an intellectually, if not morally complex figure, more so than Norman Mailar's description of him as "someone you wouldn't want to run into on a dark night" It won't tell an expert on Africa anything he won't already know about the history of the Congo, but it's got some fascinating footage, though there's no mention of the rumble in the Jungle

Well-made documentary

[dellascott · 8/10 · 29 May 2000]

This belgian-made documentary traces Mobuto as he begins his life in the military, establishes a friendship with the Belgian royal family, and, by and by, in Hitler-like fashion, installs himself as dictator of the Congo(Zaire). He disposes of rivals and opponents, though not always in the most obvious ways(one acquaintance claims he had Machiavelli's "The Prince" memorized.) He dumped bodies in rivers, doled out money from the treasury to friends(sometimes having more printed when needed)and bedded other mens' wives. He insituted a short-lived and ill-fated space program. Over the years he visited with Nixon, Bush and Indira Ghandi, among others. Like his European counterpart, Nicolai Ceaucescu, even at the end he can never quite be convinced of his own unpopularity. He manages to avoid the Ceaucescu's degrading end, and instead succumbs to prostate cancer in 1997. The film makes it clear that U.S. leaders like Bush became embarrassingly thick with Mobuto because they considered him a safeguard against communism. But what is even more disturbing is that we have no reason to believe that the Congo's current government is much better.

Whither goest thou, Frank Carlucci?

[JohnSeal · 8/10 · 12 March 2006]

This excellent documentary about the rise and fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, who parlayed a career in journalism into a decades long dictatorship, lacks only one important ingredient: the name of CIA operative Frank Carlucci, who played a significant role in Mobutu's rise at the expense of African nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Carlucci still plays his role in the affair close to the chest, but his supervisor Lawrence Devlin had no such compunctions and provides important details about the coup d'etat here. Mobutu King of Zaire is a lengthy but never boring analysis of Mobutu's opportunistic career, first as a secretary to Lumumba and then as his successor, who ordered his execution and then had the gall to pardon him six months later. The most remarkable thing about this film is the inclusion of an astonishing wealth of contemporaneous footage: one can only conclude that, along with a keen intelligence and and endless thirst for power, Mobutu had an insatiable appetite for ego-stroking interviews. Absolutely essential viewing for anyone interested in twentieth century history.