All Hail the King?

Last King of Scotland, one of the less hyped movie of 2006 explores the disorder and chaos during the Idi Amin regime in Uganda, which lasted from 1971 through 1979 and resulted in thousands upon thousands of deaths, as seen through the eyes of his fictionalized Scottish doctor.Like the Oliver Hirschbiegel’s movie “Downfall” which was based on Hitlers last days, this movie attempts to provide an unbiased
portrayal of Idi Amin,showing both his good and bad sides in equal measure. Make no
mistake, this is no historcal documentry type of movie but more like political thriller which keeps up its pace from the opening credits till the tense finale.

The story follows Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a newly graduated doctor, moves to Uganda leaving his overbearing father and searching for adventure and a chance to prove his newfound skills to save lives. He is attractive and dashing and already flirting with Sarah ( Gillian Anderson), the pretty blonde wife of the headof the rural medical clinic he’s come to work in. During the course of his work Nicholas encounters the new President himself, Idi Amin (Forest Whitatker) , through a rather bizarre and tense event and Amin offers Nicolas a new job as his personal physician. Nicholas goes along with the whole idea hesitantly at first, but really starts to bond with Amin as he comes of as a great leader with a magnetic personality . But as the ruler’s paranoia begins to set in, Nicholas discovers that no one is safe. His own life is in danger , especially since he is having an affair with Amin’s neglected third wife (Kerry Washington. Every day, Amin relies more on his soldiers and less on his non-military advisors, and his enemies begin disappearing en masse. As time wears on and Nicholas is no longer allowed to leave Uganda he realises that he has to get home by any means possible, and that leads to a tense climax.

The movie is a good, but what makes it better is the peformaces of the lead actors. James McAvoy is real good and suits the role as a young, naive and cocky doctor “trying to play the white guy in a land of blacks” who later realises what kind of deep trouble he is in, reminded me a lot for Ewan McGregor.The movie has loads of gore and one unflinching torture scene and is not recommeded for the weak hearted.

And now for the best part of the movie,Forest Whitaker delivers not only the best performance of his career, not only the best of 2006, but one of the best performances ever.You don’t see him here, You see Idi Amin, everytime he is on screen you can see the sparks fly and the tension rising. Despite playing a less than savoury character, Whitaker brings about certain charisma to his role, and makes it believable that the masses adore their new leader rising from a coup. Switching from the man who’s contended with everything, and earnestly believing he can delivery the country from the despair, to one obsessed with power, and consumed by madness, inconsistencies, and suspicion, Whitaker does it all and showcases his spectrum of abilities convincingly

When it’s all said and done, ’The Last King of Scotland’ proves to be an intense, gritty and well-made drama/thriller built around an astonishingly powerful performance that is much more memorable than the film itself.