The Last King Of Scotland paints a vivid picture of Uganda under the rule of Idi Amin, through the eyes of a young Scottish doctor, fresh-faced and over-sexed, on a post-graduation journey of self-discovery. James MacAvoy plays Nicholas Garragan, who arrives in the country unaware of Amin's recent rise to power. He rather conveniently bumps into the up and coming dictator and there begins an unlikely friendship, based largely on the fact that they both hate the English.
Forest Whitaker throws himself body and soul into the role of the larger than life despot - the film lives or dies on his performance, and it is remarkable. For a Western audience at least, he becomes Idi Amin and captures the humour and the horror of the infamous eccentric, believably yo-yoing between quirky comedy and horrific brutality.
If the film has any flaws, they're down to Garragan. Not in McAvoy's admirable performance but in the character itself, an awkward composite created to make the story neater and easier to tell, but uncomfortable in its fiction, and the historically questionable effect it has on wider events.
Also, as we discover, along with Garragan, the true nature of Amin's agenda, our sympathy seems to be provoked when he threatens the Scot, rather than by the massacre of his own countrymen. Lest we forget - the true crimes here were committed against hundreds of thousands of Africans, not one puny Scottish bloke that didn't even exist.
But all in all it's an explosive, colourful and gripping account of Uganda's dark past, directed and performed with serious flair.
1 comment:
The funny thing is the film seems to hinge on the fact that Garrigan is Scottish, not English and supposedly therefore, it justifies two hours of our time.
I didn't really see the point of this film. I would have rather have watched a documentary about Amin, but I reckon the production company couldn't find enough original footage but managed to score a coup (haha) in securing Ghostdog instead.
I was waiting to see how Scully was going to come back and save the day, only for her to disappear once and for all into the Ugandan outback on the back seat of First Group's new fleet of shit.
That requirement was left to the ridiculously altruistic beardy Dr. Thomas, the sort of cat that Uganda was in desperately short supply of, who got himself unnecessarily slaughtered in the penultimate shot of the film, so that McAvoy could get back to the bosom of a Father who he didn't particularly like to begin with.
Yesterday's score, to clarify, was 42-20.
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