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The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald)
Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a young Scottish doctor who has just earned his degree who decides to leave his home and the seemingly dull and safe prospect of becoming a family practitioner with his father. He wants something different. Anything, really. Randomly he chooses Uganda as his destination and he enlists to help a small Mission in the countryside. The year is 1970, and his arrival coincides with the leadership changing hands in a military coup. The new President is Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), a charismatic General who says he is one of the people and promises a wave of reforms and economic prosperity that will bring growth and shared wealth to the independent African nation. During a tour of the country, Amin has a chance meeting with young doctor Garrigan after a traffic accident involving a cow. Amin is impressed with his strightforwardness, and having served in the British Army in his youth Amin has a natural like and interest in Scots. For his part, Garrigan is charmed by Amin and buys into his rhetoric. Soon afterward Nicholas is invited to the capitol where he is given the position of President Amin's personal physician as well as power shaping and overseeing the national healthcare system and the State hospital. It's more than he could have dreamed of and he truly believes he may do some good. But the real Idi Amin behind the charm begins to surface, and ultimately Garrigan realizes he has made a deal with the Devil.
The character of Nicholas Garrigan, while fictional, is a window into the palace of the infamous Amin. His bloody regime wreaked terror and led to the genocide of approximately 300,000 Ugandans during the nine years of his reign. The Last King of Scotland doesn't show much of the killing, but does try to shed light on the character of Amin, who could be gregarious, magnanimous and funny at times but was only masking deep-seeded paranoia, white-hot hatred and a frightening capacity for cruelty and murder. The narrative puts us at his side from the beginning of his Presidency up through the 1976 PLO hostage situation at Entebbe International Airport. Adapted from a novel by Giles Foden, because the character of the young doctor is a fictional construct rather than an actual person the film doesn't have the air of authenticity and immediacy of something like The Killing Fields (1984) or Hotel Rwanda (2004). Since the story is told from his point-of-view it does detract from some of the power of the underlying history, and the finale of the picture where he makes his escape is a bit too contrived to swallow emotionally or intellectually, lessening the overall impact a bit.
But the story isn't attempting to document history in broad strokes or in snapshots, it's aiming at a portrait of Amin. In that regard it is a success, largely due to a magnificent performance by Forest Whitaker. I've been a huge fan and supporter of Whitaker's since the late 1980s when his performances in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Johnny Handsome (1989), Downtown (1990) and most especially Bird (1988) blew me away. Though he rightfully won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his phenomenal work as Charlie Parker in Eastwood's film, he was left out of the Oscars. Eighteen years later that Academy may finally rectify that snub. Forest plays both sides of the contradictory Idi Amin perfectly. His captivating persona coupled with his insanity is amazingly portrayed and scary to watch. As a history lesson there is much detail missing from The Last King of Scotland, but as a look at the human being responsible for some of the most monstrous and inhuman horrors of the late 20th Century it is fascinating.
GRADE: B
The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald)
Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is a young Scottish doctor who has just earned his degree who decides to leave his home and the seemingly dull and safe prospect of becoming a family practitioner with his father. He wants something different. Anything, really. Randomly he chooses Uganda as his destination and he enlists to help a small Mission in the countryside. The year is 1970, and his arrival coincides with the leadership changing hands in a military coup. The new President is Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), a charismatic General who says he is one of the people and promises a wave of reforms and economic prosperity that will bring growth and shared wealth to the independent African nation. During a tour of the country, Amin has a chance meeting with young doctor Garrigan after a traffic accident involving a cow. Amin is impressed with his strightforwardness, and having served in the British Army in his youth Amin has a natural like and interest in Scots. For his part, Garrigan is charmed by Amin and buys into his rhetoric. Soon afterward Nicholas is invited to the capitol where he is given the position of President Amin's personal physician as well as power shaping and overseeing the national healthcare system and the State hospital. It's more than he could have dreamed of and he truly believes he may do some good. But the real Idi Amin behind the charm begins to surface, and ultimately Garrigan realizes he has made a deal with the Devil.
The character of Nicholas Garrigan, while fictional, is a window into the palace of the infamous Amin. His bloody regime wreaked terror and led to the genocide of approximately 300,000 Ugandans during the nine years of his reign. The Last King of Scotland doesn't show much of the killing, but does try to shed light on the character of Amin, who could be gregarious, magnanimous and funny at times but was only masking deep-seeded paranoia, white-hot hatred and a frightening capacity for cruelty and murder. The narrative puts us at his side from the beginning of his Presidency up through the 1976 PLO hostage situation at Entebbe International Airport. Adapted from a novel by Giles Foden, because the character of the young doctor is a fictional construct rather than an actual person the film doesn't have the air of authenticity and immediacy of something like The Killing Fields (1984) or Hotel Rwanda (2004). Since the story is told from his point-of-view it does detract from some of the power of the underlying history, and the finale of the picture where he makes his escape is a bit too contrived to swallow emotionally or intellectually, lessening the overall impact a bit.
But the story isn't attempting to document history in broad strokes or in snapshots, it's aiming at a portrait of Amin. In that regard it is a success, largely due to a magnificent performance by Forest Whitaker. I've been a huge fan and supporter of Whitaker's since the late 1980s when his performances in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Johnny Handsome (1989), Downtown (1990) and most especially Bird (1988) blew me away. Though he rightfully won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his phenomenal work as Charlie Parker in Eastwood's film, he was left out of the Oscars. Eighteen years later that Academy may finally rectify that snub. Forest plays both sides of the contradictory Idi Amin perfectly. His captivating persona coupled with his insanity is amazingly portrayed and scary to watch. As a history lesson there is much detail missing from The Last King of Scotland, but as a look at the human being responsible for some of the most monstrous and inhuman horrors of the late 20th Century it is fascinating.
GRADE: B