'The Last King Scotland' by Stuart Brown
The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 drama about Ugandan
dictator Idi Amin in the 1970’s. We follow Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan as
he travels to Uganda to help in a rural hospital, soon after finishing his
degree. He soon has the opportunity to meet the newly appointed president Idi
Amin, and after treating him for a sprained wrist he gets his attention by
shooting a injured cow to put the creature out of its misery. Admin at first
seem intimidating towards Nicholas, but after discovering he is Scottish they immediately
get on very well.
He quickly takes a job as the presidents physician, where
he becomes close friends with Amin and one of his closest advisers. While Nicholas
sits in ignorant bliss, happy with his position and the presidents fondness of
him, it becomes clearer and clearer of the presidents erratic behaviour and his
understandable fear of assassination rapidly turns into kidnappings against
every and anyone who speaks against the new presidents regime. Even when Nicholas tries to leave to country,
Admin simply says “you cannot.” Twisting his words to make himself happy,
Nicholas realises he’s in well over his head and Admin is hiding very dark
secrets from him.
After very stupidly getting drunk and sleeping with one of
Amin’s wives, she tells Nicholas to get out of the country. Though he seems to
have gotten away with it, this is when the film becomes very exciting. After Nicholas
returns to his home to find out his passport has been taken, he seeks help from
Stone, the British Foreign Office representative
Nicholas promises to abort his and Kay’s (Amin’s
wife)’s baby, but being made to stay at Amin’s press conference, he finds that
she tried to have it done in a back alley in the nearest village. She was caught,
killed, and had her limbs chopped off, and her arms stitched where her legs
should be and vise versa. Amin claims it was to make an example of traitors.
A hijacked aircraft is then flown into Entebbe by
pro-Palestinian hijackers with hostages seeking refuge from agents of
international law. Amin brings Nicholas to the scene to help them, where Nicholas’
plot revealed to poison Amin in the form of medication, and he
is beaten, tortured and left to hang on hooks by his skin. A fellow doctor
cleans up Nicholas, and gets in on route to the plane where the hostages are
being lead to be released. He is killed by Amin’s men for saving Nicholas.
“48 hours later, Isreali forces stormed Entebbe and
liberated all but one of the hostages. International public opinion turned
against Amin for good. When he was finally over thrown in 1979 jubilant crowds
poured onto the streets. His regime had killed over 300,00 Ugandans. Amin died
in exile in Saudi Arabia on the 16th of August 2003.”
Though the direction by Kevin McDonald is fantastic, and
what also stood out was the unique sound design. Being fast paced, silent, and eerie
in all the right places, this has a great, beneficial effect for the film. The
other incredible aspect of the film is the acting. Forest Whitaker steals every
scene he’s in. Changing emotion so quickly and unprovoked really brings home
the insane mentality of Idi Amin. Though Whitaker really is the star James
Mcavoy should not be forgotten, as he plays every element of his character
perfectly. The Last King of Scotland (entitled because Amin famously declared
himself king) is a very exciting, engaging film about jealousy, control, fear, and
desperation. Very highly recommended, though I do not feel it will help in the
making of our particular subject film.
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