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The Last King of Scotland (2006)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
12 January 2007 (UK) moreTagline:
Charming. Magnetic. Murderous.Plot:
Based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s full summary | full synopsisAwards:
Won Oscar. Another 34 wins & 21 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(48 articles)
Genre Icons, Oscar Heroes And Comedic Geniuses In This Week’s Birthday Bash (From MTV Movies Blog. 13 July 2009, 8:00 AM, PDT)
134 New Names Invited to Join the Academy
(From Rope Of Silicon. 1 July 2009, 1:08 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Whitaker's Towering Portrayal of the Mesmerizing Ugandan Dictator Lifts This Historical Fiction moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Forest Whitaker | ... | Idi Amin | |
| James McAvoy | ... | Dr. Nicholas Garrigan | |
| Kerry Washington | ... | Kay Amin | |
| Gillian Anderson | ... | Sarah Merrit | |
| Simon McBurney | ... | Stone | |
| David Oyelowo | ... | Dr. Junju | |
| Stephen Rwangyezi | ... | Jonah Wasswa | |
| Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga | ... | Masanga (as Abby Mukiibi) | |
| Adam Kotz | ... | Dr. Merrit | |
| Sam Okelo | ... | Bonny | |
| Sarah Nagayi | ... | Tolu | |
| Chris Wilson | ... | Perkins | |
| Dr. Dick Stockley | ... | Times Journalist | |
| Barbara Rafferty | ... | Mrs. Garrigan | |
| David Ashton | ... | Dr. Garrigan (senior) |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for some strong violence and gruesome images, sexual content and language.Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
121 min | USA:123 min | Canada:121 min (Toronto International Film Festival)Country:
UKColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Dolby DigitalCertification:
USA:R | Singapore:M18 | Ireland:15A | Finland:K-15 | UK:15 | South Africa:16 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Australia:MA | France:-12 | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Malaysia:18PL (DVD) | Spain:13 | Japan:R-15 | Brazil:16Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The Times journalist is played by Dr. Dick Stockley who is a British doctor who lives and works in Kampala, Uganda. moreGoofs:
Revealing mistakes: During the crowd scene in the village, set around 1972, a man can be seen wearing a Canadian Scout Uniform that wasn't issued until 1994. moreMovie Connections:
Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Forest Whitaker/Keith Urban (#32.13)" (2007) moreSoundtrack:
Acholi Pot Song moreFAQ
Why is the movie called "The Last King of Scotland"?Where can I learn about the Entebbe hijacking?
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Forest Whitaker's ferociously charismatic turn as Idi Amin so dominates this intense historical fiction that it is honestly difficult to pay attention to anything else in this 2006 political thriller. Even though he is definitively the emotional locus, he is intriguingly not the protagonist of the story. That role belongs to young James McAvoy, who plays Nicholas Garrigan, a precocious Scottish doctor who ventures to Uganda to satisfy his need for adventure after graduating medical school. By happenstance, Garrigan is called upon to help Amin with a minor sprain after his private car plows into a cow. Impressed by the young man's lack of hesitancy to take action, Amin appoints Garrigan to be his personal physician, a post that seduces the impressed doctor into the Ugandan dictator's political inner circle and extravagant lifestyle.
Scottish director Kevin MacDonald brings his extensive documentary film-making skills to the fore here, as he creates a most realistic-feeling atmosphere in capturing the oppressive Uganda of the 1970's. Helping considerably with this image are the vibrant color contrasts in Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography and the propulsive action induced by Justine Wright's sharp editing. Screenwriters Peter Morgan (who also wrote "The Queen") and Jeremy Brock have developed a sharply delineated character study of Amin, who evolves from a magnetic leader giving hope to his people to a scarifying tyrant conducting murders on an imaginable scale (at least until the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur). It is impossible to over-praise Whitaker's towering performance here. He conveys the dictator's playfulness as well as his unmitigated rage moving from simmering to full boil with a power that is at once bravura and subtle. His relationship with the fictionalized Garrigan turns out to be the plot's essential pivot point, although the contrast between the two can be almost too extreme at times.
While McAvoy admirably captures the boyish naiveté of Garrigan, the character is drawn out in rather broad strokes that make his self-delusion all the more contrived as the story progresses. To intensify the political upheaval portrayed, the plot takes a melodramatic turn into an adulterous affair and even folds in the infamous 1976 Entebbe hijacking incident to illustrate Garrigan's increasingly precarious situation. It's all exciting and even downright brutalizing toward the end, but it also starts to feel a bit too Hollywood in execution. Kerry Washington shows genuine versatility as Amin's cloistered third wife Kay, while Simon McBurney oozes cynical suspicion with ease as a British operative. A convincingly Brit-accented Gillian Anderson makes her few scenes count as a weary clinic worker who proves to have better instincts than Garrigan. But see the movie for Whitaker's magnificent work. He is that good.