The Last King of Scotland [DVD] [2006]

Absolutely fabulous watchHave plenty of tissues at the ready

The Last King Of Scotland is essentially a film about two very flawed characters . Dr Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a young Scottish doctor so eager to escape the stifling prim surroundings of his family home he decides to head off to the first place his finger lands on a globe. Thus he ends up in Uganda and here his character ( a composite character based on three real people and taken from Giles Fodens novel. Foden has a cameo role in the film as a journalist ) is an embodiment of western values who see's the third world through naïve patronising eyes and only sees what it wants to see. Garrigan wants to help people which is why he ends up volunteering to help dispense medical care but he is selfish impulsive , brash and easily manipulated which is why he also ends up becoming the personal physician and sometime adviser to Idi Amin (Forrest Whittaker)Amin ,of course is flawed because he is a mass murdering monomaniac but he is also charismatic, charming and capable of self decrepitating humour .Garrigan has arrived in Uganda just after Amin has taken power and after seeing him at a rally he too is swept along by his magnetism and powerful words -" I know who you are and what you are .I am you". After Garrigan attends a minor injury sustained by Amin they swap shirts and a bond is formed .Amin offers Garrigan the job as his personal physician meaning Garrigan must break off a blossoming relationship with married fellow volunteer Sarah Merritt ( Gillian Anderson) Once sucked into Amin,s world he is easily seduced by his wealth and power but forms a dangerous attraction to one of Amins wife's Kay (Kerry Washington) after he treats her epileptic son who has been more or less disowned by his father -the first telling sign of his dark side.As Amins paranoia, selfishness and psychosis unfurl themselves with increasing frequency Garrigan starts to realise he is in over his head but attempts to extricate himself but Amin tells him that his "Work here isn't finished yet". This prompts the young doctor attempt to ingratiate himself with English diplomat Nigel Stone (Simon McBunney) , a man he formerly treated with sneering contempt but is told in order for them to help him he must assassinate Amin. The film concludes with scenes of torture and murder amid the turmoil and hostage crisis at Entebbe airport.Director Kevin McDonald whose previous films have been documentaries imbibes the film with a documentary element and cleverly uses the same texture and colours of seventies film and television. The acting is superb with McAvoy giving his character a youthful vigour and likeability despite his imperfections and who wouldn't be seduced by what he is offered , especially at his tender years. Whittaker however is immense ,the most deserving Oscar winner for a very long time. He kept in character throughout the shoot and even learnt Swahili and yet incredibly wasn't the first choice for the role. He completely convinces in his portrayal of a man capable of murdering 300, 000 of his own people yet his humour and allure shine through and you cannot help but warm to him at times . The scene at a banquet where he cracks a joke about cannibalism is symptomatic of this. Whittaker makes every nuance of his character totally believable so much so that Ugandans watching the production film the rally scenes thought Amin had actually returned.The Last King Of Scotland is a riveting film about a despicable character but one that shows how easy it is for despicable characters to flourish and impose their diabolical will on others. There is a scene where Garrigan attending to the General after his Presidential car has run into a buffalo is distracted by the animals cries and pulls out Amin,s gun to put it out of it,s misery. Far better for everyone and history if he had shot the other wounded animal first.

A grim story and actually not a true one - the real facts are manipulated and sometimes ignored, though the essence of an evil dictator is brilliantly portrayed by Forest Whitaker in a towering and Oscar winning performance. James McAvoy is spot on, and supporting performances are all strong. Graphic and not for the faint hearted but extremely compelling.

If after watching a movie one feels lonesome and a longing to see it again , that is one way of recognising a masterpiece. That is not the only reason why 'The Last King of Scotland' is one: it is an absolutely flawless piece of filmmaking from the first reel to the last and an experience that has the capacity to stay in one's memories long after the end credits rollout.The director, Kevin MacDonald brings his skills as an award winning documentary maker to the film with great penchant and handles the quite tricky subject matter delicately, humorously and, more importantly, impartially, and delivers a story that could have easily become unpalatable and unpleasant in the hands of a tactless director. A portrayal of the life and times of a brutal dictator like Idi Amin is not as easy as it may seem. He was atrocious, brutally menacing and was obnoxious to even those who were closest to him. If he had any charisma to speak of, that was attributable to his intimidating presence rather than to any amiability. Forest Whitaker's stupendous and award winning portrayal of Amin therefore is central to the success of this film, simply because he brings in his captivating charisma to the role and, being the great actor he is, effortlessly blends in the menace that the brutal dictator used to control his hapless subjects with. The result is that, whenever the character appears, he overwhelmingly commands from the viewer affection and revulsion in equal measure, and in that order, and, in doing so, inescapably renders Amin more affable than he actually was to his defenceless subjects.In stark contrast, James McAvoy's equally splendid and seemingly effortless performance portraits an immensely charming, youthfully intense and endearingly reckless Nicholas Garrigan who is the antithesis of Amin, not too different from an angel to a demon, and who, to his detriment, captures the heart of the beleaguered dictator.From the very first moment the two meet, a numbing anxiety, a kind that is incomparable with any past cinema experience, builds up, arresting the audience, and escalates to a paralysing crescendo during the last thirty minutes of the movie.Equally commendable contributions from the rest of the crew and the cast make this film a great achievement in cinema history. But, what makes it a masterpiece, reminiscent of benchmarks of political cinema such as `The Killing Fields`, 'The Year of Living Dangerously' and `Schindler's List', is that it has the potential to remain in our collective memory, hopefully reminding the generations to come of the barbarity of humanity that, despite countless lessons from the past, remains unabated to this day. Long live the human evolution!BrownPolar7th February 2008

Really engrossed me. Very interesting (although based on a fictional character, the main facts are there). Will keep you captured on a rainy day weekend.