Madness and Power

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2008)

The Last King of Scotland is an good examination of how the mind of a dictator works and the juxtaposition of madness, intelligence, corruption, and manifest destiny.
Of course Forrest Whitaker deserved the Oscar for his portrayal of Amin. He took you into the inner cerebral working of a historically one dimensional figure. James McAvoy was equally outstanding as someone with idealistic goals, who is easily seduced by money and power.
This film had a lot of issues to tackle, but the main themes were Amin, racism, violence and sexism.
I think the film subtly covered the racism from the British point of view, in which the characters felt they were more intelligent, cultivated, and civilized than the Ugandans. This imperialistic attitude is something that Amin is all too aware of and he knows the British would just prefer him to be their puppet. McAvoy's character feels he is above these attitudes, but there are times throughout the film when you see he is a product of his countrymen. Though he staunchly waves the flag for his native Scotland, he takes on imperialistic attitudes, by turning a blind eye to the true nature of Amin's government and the killing of many Ugandans, because it doesn't affect him and the good time he is having and the material profits he gains. When Amin's wife tells him she is pregnant, they decided to dispose the baby, but he doesn't want to do it, because he would be guilty and feels he is morally above murder, so he asks the black doctor to do it for him at the hospital. When that doesn't work, he decides to do it himself, but it is too late.
This moral defects in McAvoy's character is a foil for the moral defects in Amin, and it is no wonder he thinks of Dr. Garrigan as a son and tells him so. Both men's moral defects set up the violence in the film that some people feel is gratuitous, but when you kill 300,000 people, you have to keep it real in the film. Amin feels the violence is necessary for the good of Uganda and to retain his power and is part of his manifest destiny. Amin feels he has a special insight into people and fate and can predict his future. On the other hand, our Dr. Garrigan's participation in the violence is passive. He knows he has influence with Amin, but doesn't use it in the right way to make Amin do good. He mentions to Amin, in a blind showing of loyalty for a friend, a meeting between a cabinet member and a British official and essentially carries out an stay of execution on that man. When confronted with this fact by Amin, Dr. Garrigan becomes upset, because he doesn't think it is his fault. He didn't carry out the murderous act, but he spoke the words and in this film words are a tool of violence.
As far as sexism in this film, I have to step outside of this film for a moment. As a African-American woman, I was disturbed by the images of the black women in this film because that old promiscuous hag showed up again. There was nothing loving in the scene between McAvoy and Washington, it just seemed primal. The way it was looped in with the gyrating female dancer, just said here is a white man that is sleeping with a black woman, because he has access, he is in Africa, and no one will find out back home. A lot of the black women in many of the scenes just seemed to be giving it up to anybody, or dancing in a provocative manner. Yes, I realize some scenes were in night clubs and people were dancing. At one point, when Garrigan laughs when he tells Washington's character he could just imagine her back home with him and the possible uproar it would cause, you see him at his imperialistic best. By this point in the film, we all know he is a horny hound dog and would jump any female, black or white. But why is it that Gillian Anderson's character is the white woman who shows restraint while in the midst of moral decay. She chooses to have virtue. This image of the promiscuous black woman won't go away. I know the director is a white male and I wonder if this was intentional in keeping with the themes of the film or something that has never been brought to his attention. I do wonder if the director had the counsel of some black women, if their whole affair would have had a different tone to it. To be honest, the love affair just could have been left out all together and wouldn't have hurt the movie at all.
However, I did like this film, despite the stuff I mentioned above. I think McAvoy should have got more praise for what he did with his role. And it seems the world is still learning that madness and power don't mix, but often go hand in hand.