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The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition)
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - What's wrong with this picture?
What a wonderful first half of a movie! James MacAvoy was tremendous as the naïve Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, a young med school grad who traded a safe career as a country doctor in his dad's practice for a life of adventure in a mission hospital in Uganda. Garrigan is a skilled doctor, but also incredibly callow. Arriving in Uganda at the time of Idi Amin's takeover in 1971, he intends to boff everything in sight, including the wife of his fellow doctor. Coming on the future dictator whose car has collided. Garrigan inadvertently finds favor with the strongman and soon finds himself the his personal physician. Amin then begins to give the doctor more and more responsibilities, until he is so enmeshed he cannot escape.
(Note: some spoilers follow)
First off, Garrigan is fictional, which gives the filmmakers a couple of options. They can either make him the eyes of the audience, a means for letting them see events in a naturalistic fashion. Or they can use him allegorically, making him stand for something larger than himself. In the case of "Last King," the filmmakers seemingly tried to use him as both, but without success. Large swaths of Ugandan history are kept from Garrigan's eyes, and therefore our own. Amin is portrayed as large and lovable, with only a hint of the beast within. When it comes time for Garrigan to realize what a murderous monster Amin really is, Garrigan is brought up to speed in just a few minutes. It's at this point that the movie became unbelievable. We are asked to believe that everyone but Garrigan knew what was going on in the country. But the good Doctor was hardly kept in isolation, so his continued ignorance (when surrounded by those who knew the truth and were trying to tell it to him) is incredible. Garrigan doesn't even function as an allegorical figure, represting the outside world, since Amin's brutality was well known outside his own country.
I demur from those who admire Forest Whitaker's depiction of the dictator. FW is too much of a teddy bear to function as homicidal maniac. His sudden turn from genial, oafish strongman to brooding maniac comes too swiftly to be believable. Watch the shots of the real Amin at the end of the film and in the additional material. He was a scary guy, with cold, piercing eyes. Sorry, Forest, but I would not have voted you the Oscar.
"Last King of Scotland" is a perplexing film that could have been much more. The final scenes, depicting the Entebbe raid in 1979, exist less for what they say about Amin or Uganda than as a convenient means for letting Garrigan escape the country. Why else the brutal scene in the room adjacent to where the hostages were kept? The film's first half promised a real classic about Africa and the forces that created a man like Amin. The failure of the film's second half, with its bloody scenes of torture, indicated a failure of nerve to follow through on that promise.
Rating:  - Last King of Scotland
An extraordinary film -- not easy to watch because of the violence but well-worth the time. We should always be reminded that horrible things go on under our collective noses. Both Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy were absolutely brillient.
Rating: - A Much Deserved Oscar and Golden Globe Winner
Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin deserves all the praise and awards he has received for this stunningly rich performance. He becomes the cruel dictator for every moment he is on the screen in this two-hour film and plays Amin as an extremely complex man who has had an interesting experience in the British military, loves all things Scottish and is willing to put his complete trust in a young white physician Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) who goes to Uganda in the early 1970's to begin his practice of medicine. Young and full of optimism, he goes to Uganda to "make a difference," becomes Amin's personal physician quite by accident on his part and gradually becomes sucked into the maelstrom of the dictator's evil machinations.
The music is beautiful-- for example, a native singer performs a soulful rendition of Kris Kristofferson's plaintive "Me and Bobby McGhee"-- and the filming comes off as completely authentic. My only concern with this must-see movie is that McAvoy looks too young to be a physician. Surely he would have had to have been approaching thirty to have just finished medical school, but he looks much younger. I heard an African American professor giving a civil rights speech shortly after Whitaker won his awards who in passing criticized this film because Amin is "saved and protected" by a white man, the physician. (Garrigan is a fictionalized character from the novel by Giles Foden.) I would argue just the opposite since Garrigan's life is saved by an African physican who loses his own for saving Garrigan's.
The DVD version has documentary footage from Amin's life that is certainly worth seeing along with this highly suspenseful movie that is not to be missed.
Rating:  - better than the book
Orson Welles had a theory that bad books make good movies, and The Last King of Scotland proves his point: from a clunky and ham-fisted novel comes a quite dazzling film, mostly notable for its great acting. It may not be a genre-defining masterpiece, but it's engaging and often beautiful. Even the soundtrack (which is mostly Nigerian, but that's besides the point) is exciting. Definitely a case when it is better to have seen the movie than read the book!
Rating: - Forest Whitaker Takes Home The Crown!
"The Last King of Scotland" is a grim masterpice based off of the best selling book, which went a little bit differently.
WARNING POSSIBLE SPOLIERS
A young and very naive doctor recently graduates from medical school, and his dad is being hard on him. To get away from his idiot dad, Nicholas Garrigan (Played by James McAvoy), goes to the last place on earth anyone would want to be other then the USSR, Uganda! When he gets there he frolicks with the female natives, makes some new friends like Dr. Merrit and his wife Sarah (Gillian Anderson). Before long, Nicholas falls hard for the Sarah, but she rejects him kindly.
Then they have a chance incounter with Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), Nicholas helps bandge his hand up, and he takes his gun and shoots a wounded cow without his permission. Idi is impressed, and then realizes that Nicholas isn't acutally British but Scottish. What a suprise they share something in common like most friends do, Uganda and Scotland were or is under British occupation.
After Idi becomes leader of all Uganda, he invites Nicholas into his home, as it turns out he's obsesssed with Scotland as a country. Nicholas and Idi become fast friends, and while Idi is charming, funny and charismatic, alas like most villians he too had his share of flaws.
The British try to warn Nicholas that Idi isn't who he thinks he is and try to tell him that if he gets in his way, he could die. But Nicholas isn't worried to much, he has nice stuff that Idi gives to him. But then things turn sour when Nicholas takes notice of one of Idi's wives. Only question is, will Nicholas as stupid and naive as he is get out of Uganda alive? I'm not telling just find out for yourselves!
Here is what I think of the movie as a whole.
A. Music- Fantastic music by the African choirs and chants it makes you think you're in Africa yourself.
B. Scenery- Just beautiful, makes me want to go to Uganda itself.
C. Plot- Brillient.
D. Acting- Brillient, Forest Whitaker plays Idi so authintically that you won't even know it's him! And anyone who says that Forset doesn't or didn't deserve that Oscar, they're wrong. He won that Oscar far and square! James McAvoy did a good job too, but it was Forest who stole the show!
I dedicate this film to anyone interested in thriller movies, Africa, African history, historical fiction, and Forest Whitaker! Two thumbs up for "The Last King of Scotland"!
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