The Last King Of Scotland

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2007)

The Last King Of Scotland is based upon the novel of the same name by Giles Foden. The film takes pace in the 1970's and is about a young doctor from Scotland named Nicholas Garrigan who decides to travel to Uganda to become a doctor there. After being set up with one or two other doctors in Uganda, Nicholas meets the new president of Uganda named Idi Amin. Amin is quite taken by Nicholas, so he decides to make him his own personal physician and moves him to a bigger hospital. Nicholas and Amin also become quite friendly and Amin seems to have a real soft spot in his heart for Nicholas and he sort of takes him under his wing while at the same time often coming to Nicholas for help for medical reasons and advice for the country. Soon, Nicholas sees that Idi isn't always just fun and laughter and that he has a dark side which later resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being murdered in Uganda causing Idi Amin to go into exile until his death in 2003. The Last King Of Scotland is the winner of 22 awards including the Oscar for Best Actor (Forest Whitaker who played Idi Amin). I thought this film was a masterpiece from start to finish and certainly one of the best films of 2006. The film is directed with great skill, has a good script, good cinematography and good film editing. Don't think I've forgotten about the acting because that is one of the things that makes this movie so great. Forest Whitaker completely transforms into Idi Amin and totally owns this character and at times makes him seem jolly and fun to sometimes downright frightening and menacing. Everything from Whitaker's facial expressions, body language and right up to the way he portrays this character is brilliant and is very worthy of the Oscar for Best Actor. James McAvoy who plays Nicholas also does a great job here and I think he was very overlooked when the award season hit. What could have been a long and political movie turns out to be a film that is more about characters, their personalities and what is going on in their minds. The character development and study of this film is great and the characters are brought to life by the great acting, script and direction. This is also a good looking movie and is immensely entertaining, at times thrilling and always compelling right up until the end. This is a powerful and engrossing film which has lots of talent behind the camera and right in front of it. I liked how the movie went more for the characters than the political stuff and although he was called a brutal murderer I liked how also the film gave Amin a more human side because it made him all the more real and believable. This is a towering achievement in film that sets the bar from acting to directing and is one of the best films of 2006.