Review: The Last King of Scotland (2006)

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: Based on a novel but inspired by real events,
this is the story of a young Scottish doctor who
becomes a personal confidant of Idi Amin, one of the
most bloodthirsty tyrants in African history. The
history of Idi Amin is an intriguing story, but this
film tells us too much about its fictional European
and not enough about the politics of Uganda under an
all-too-real tyrant. Forest Whitaker gives a superb
performance as a dictator of many faces, often
changing from one to another in seconds. But we need
to see more of what Amin did. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
or 7/10

Besides one or two rarely seen documentaries and docu-dramas,
cinema has paid little attention to the rule of Idi Amin (or Idi
Amin Dada) of Uganda from 1971 it 1979. Amin, formerly a member
of the British King's African Rifles and also formerly a champion
prizefighter, made an international spectacle of himself with his
truly weird behavior, including jokes that he was a cannibal, as
well as his inhuman tactics as a dictator. We see an important
and ruthless leader through the eyes of a European who is at
least inspired by a real person. That approach was used with
SHOGUN also, but SHOGUN was long enough that it allowed us to see
a good chunk of Japanese history. Nicholas Garrigan has other
things on his mind when Amin is doing his worst.

James McAvoy plays Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who
decides to leave home in order to escape from his overbearing
father. He chooses Uganda by chance and decides to use his
talent to help out at a rural clinic. This is in an area where
four out of five people still prefer the services of a witch
doctor to a medical one. Garrigan arrives just after a military
coup. Garrigan is caught up in the excitement of change to the
then popular leader Amin, and it is not long before Garrigan
actually meets the now-President Idi Amin (played by Forest
Whitaker).

Garrigan is offered a Faustian bargain. Amin has a volatile
personality, but he does have a predilection for the Scottish and
on an impulse--how Amin seems to make most of his decisions--he
asks Garrigan to be his personal physician. It is an offer that
the young doctor is not actually permitted to refuse. Garrigan
takes the position and becomes what Amin calls his closest
advisor. He finds that Amin has his own charm, at times almost a
childlike quality. But being a close advisor makes Garrigan a
pawn caught between the sinister forces of the Ugandan
dictatorial regime and what may be equally sinister, the forces
of the British government. Simon McBurney has a nicely ambiguous
role as British diplomatic agent Nigel Stone. Garrigan finds
himself figuratively riding a tiger that he dare not dismount.

The presence of the British in Uganda very much hangs over this
film. Amin himself worked his way up the ranks in the British
military and it was the British who helped to install Amin in
power. Still, Amin hates the British because of his ill
treatment by them, yet he loves the Scottish whom he does not
think of as British. And when Amin decides to expel foreigners,
it is the Asians he wants removed and notably not the British.

There are some dissatisfying aspects of the script. Garrigan is
kept in the Kampala palace, isolated from and largely ignorant of
the reign of terror that Amin is inflicting on Uganda. That
means that much of what would be of interest is simply not
possible to shown in this story from Garrigan's point of view.
Garrigan is in a state of denial about the rumors that he hears
that things are getting very bad in the country. He continues to
admire and have affection for the initially populist Amin while
unbeknownst to him a bloodbath is going on mostly outside
Kampala. A more interesting story might have had Idi Amin as the
central character or perhaps the intriguing Nigel Stone, who much
more than the Scot has a global view of Ugandan politics.
Frankly, Garrigan's sexual adventures usually are a mere
distraction from the most compelling aspects of the story.
Garrigan is the third most interesting person in a film in which
he is supposedly the main character, and that is exactly how
McAvoy plays him.

Be warned that there are some harrowing scenes in this film. But
a more complete picture of Amin's reign would have been much more
harrowing. After very fine films about African politics like
HOTEL RWANDA and the even more riveting SOMETIMES IN APRIL, THE
LAST KING OF SCOTLAND is merely a good film among great ones. As
such I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Mark R. Leeper
mleeper DeleteThis @optonline.net
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper