Crazy King is worthy heir to throne

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2007)

Supposedly, Idi Amin's official, obviously self-awarded title was "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular." I note this in case you're on the fence as to whether the Ugandan dictator (sorry, president) was indeed a madman.
Amin was the "people's choice" leader of the central-African nation Uganda from 1971 to 1979, a reign marred by mass murders, cannibalism, and generally rude behavior on the part of the Fearless Leader toward, well, anyone not him. In other words, not a particularly fun time to be a Ugandan, or to visit Uganda.
In the Last King of Scotland, Amin is played by Forest Whitaker, who turns in an Oscar-winning performance as the unhinged leader; it is a singularly magnificent exhibition, a prime example of an actor simply disappearing into a role. Gone is the goofy persona from Good Morning, Vietnam, or the morose hit-man from Diary of a Hit-man; Whitaker is finally at center stage. And where you might expect some actors to ham things up a bit, playing a larger-than-life character, Whitaker comes across as honest and eminently believable. His Amin believes in Uganda, wants to see it prosper, but he's drawn by the centralized power and damaged by bouts of insecurity and self-doubt.
The story is told through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scotsman who arrived at Uganda hoping to make a difference in the health of Ugandans but who wound up as the personal physician - and a bit more - of the country's unstable president. Garrigan's wide eyed, but not so wide eyed that he can't pause to bed seemingly every woman he lays eyes on. I guess it's the rowdy Scot in him, or something. Anyway, he goes from being a simple country doctor (and making eyes at his colleague's wife) to the presidential palace, where he naturally beds one of Amin's many wives. Nothing good can come of that.
Whitaker's superb, of course, but McAvoy seemed a little more transparent as the dictator's right-hand man, his number-one closest adviser. McAvoy's Garrigan seemed to wilt in the presence of Amin, which makes sense until you realize part of the characterization is that Garrigan stands up to Amin; that's why the latter respects the former. Even the way Garrigan and Amin meet seems wrong. There's an accident, and the president needs some mending (sprained hand); meanwhile, a cow that had been hit by a car is braying in pain. No one is doing anything about it, so Garrigan grabs Amin's gun - with all his soldiers around him, mind you - and shoots the cow several times. Problem solved. Only we'd seen no evidence that Garrigan could handle a gun or that he was comfortable around them, and we saw virtually nothing after that that would imply he was the strong, heroic type. And, really, grabbing the new president's gun in full view of his heavily armed soldiers? Doesn't make much sense. Later on, toward the end of the movie, Garrigan makes two ridiculously stupid decisions, too, putting the whole notion of his intelligence to the lie.
The biggest problem, though, is that nearly all of Garrigan's problems can be traced to one source - his penis. Yeah, I said it. If he'd kept the thing in his pants, he wouldn't have been in ANY trouble with Amin and would have found it a bit easier to eventually leave the country and return to Scotland.
But the bottom line is that this is Whitaker's movie, despite the perspective, and he's so perfect that it's easy to forgive McAvoy's lightweight performance and the plot oddities. The Last King of Scotland is a cut above most historical movies, because even knowing the ending won't spoil the fun. It's also exquisitely photographed (in Uganda itself), and it's riddled with electric scenes.