Kevin Macdonald’s film The Last King of Scotland (2006) is based on the award-winning novel by the same title, written by journalist Giles Folden and published in 1998. The film, like the novel, interlaces fact and fiction. Factual history surrounding Idi Amin’s tyrannical rule of Uganda during the 1970s unfolds through the eyes of a fictional protagonist. The protagonist is Dr. Nicholas Garrigan who has just graduated from medical school in Scotland and sees working abroad as a means to escape the smothering clutches of his parents. What was supposed to be his ticket to freedom, eventually turns him into a slave of his own conscience.
Garrigan impresses Amin when he rushes to aid him during an accident and displays what Amin regards as a bold, heroic character. He is slow to accept Amin’s offer to be his personal physician, but he is eventually lured into the glamorous lifestyle and privileges that accompany the status of the role. The very arrogant, ignorant and naïve Garrigan is duped by Amin’s charisma at first, but as the film progresses, Amin reveals more and more of his tyranny and Garrigan realises that he is an unknowing accomplice to bloodshed and corruption. Things are not as innocent as they seem to be on the surface.
The performances of Forest Whitaker, who plays Amin, and James McAvoy who plays Garrigan, are superb. Whitaker captures the enigmatic extremities of Amin’s infantile charisma, neurosis and paranoia, terrifying brutality, absurd behaviour and laughable idiocy. McAvoy also gives a poignant performance of Garrigan’s frivolous arrogance which develops into a disillusioned realisation of the evils within himself and humankind as a whole.
The film starts off very light-heartedly, which reflects Garrigan’s ignorance and naivety. The director cleverly shows only bits and pieces of Amin to the viewer who is duped by the frivolous appearance of things. But as the plot progresses, more of Amin’s real cruel character is revealed along with other atrocities that happen under his command. A dark and sinister web of murder and brutality unravels and Garrigan, together with the viewer, realise that they have been fooled by the innocent appearance of things.
Do not expect a biography of Amin’s life and actions though. Very little of this is shown in the film and a lot of things are only insinuated. The film is not so much about Amin, as about Garrigan’s character development and his own moral conflict.
SPOILER WARNING: Garrigan parallels Amin in that he escapes prosecution for his sins. Amin only died in 2003 in exile in Saudi-Arabia and was never brought to justice. An estimated 300,000 people died in Uganda under his tyrannic rule in a span of but only 90 days. Garrigan also disrupts many lives, especially the lives of the women he beds without thinking of the moral implications or the deaths he is indirectly responsible for, yet he escapes death himself. Although he is punished by Amin and his assailants, he escapes with his life, while many other innocents die for his freedom. This left me quite disconcerted and disturbed, but only emphasises that life is not fair and that many innocent people die whilst guilty parties are never held accountable for their actions. The scene wherein Garrigan is hung from the ceiling by his skin is very explicit, but deliberately so, for it juxtaposes the binary categories of fact and fiction, appearance and reality, ignorance and knowledge, good and evil. SPOILER ENDS HERE.
Genre: Drama/Biography
Running time: 121 min
Country: UK
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Writing credits: Giles Foden (novel)
Jeremy Brock (screenplay)
Peter Morgan (screenplay)
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle
Editor: Justine Wright
Music: Alex Heffe
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Main Cast:
Idi Dada Amin – Forest Whitaker
Nicholas Garrigan – James McAvoy
Sarah Merrit – Gillian Anderson
Kay Amin – Kerry Washington
Nigel Stone – Simon McBurney
