‘Last King’ stands tall

Although the title “The Last King of Scotland” alludes to both a king and Scotland, neither is prominent in the film depicting a citizen from Scotland and a man who believes himself a king. The film chronicles the cruel dictatorship of Idi Amin, an army general who ruled Uganda for most of the 1970s.

Difficult to watch and even harder to forget, “The Last King of Scotland” presents the reality of a history that is tough to stomach. While Amin — played brilliantly by Forest Whitaker — lives a life that includes every worldly luxury and sin as the self appointed president of Uganda, the people he came from and rule over are dying by the tens of thousands.

The film approaches the story from the view of a fictional character, Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor — played by James McAvoy — that comes to Uganda looking for an adventure, but ends up in the heart of the darkness of Amin’s evil regime after becoming his personal physician.

Behind the camera, Amin’s true personal physician during the time of his dictatorship was one of his closest advisors, just as Garrigan becomes in the film. Following his escape from Uganda, the real physician wrote a book in 1977 called “A State of Blood” exposing the true story of Amin’s cruel dictatorship.

“The Last King of Scotland” is not an enjoyable film; it is an excellent film. Although it is very difficult to watch due to the graphic corruption it features, “The Last King of Scotland” is a well-written, challenging, suspenseful and tragically realistic portrayal through wonderful actors.

Whitaker provides a stirring performance as Amin, bringing the audience into the arms of the truly charismatic leader only to drag viewers along the mental decline that destroys Amin. McAvoy also gives a strong performance as Dr. Garrigan.

Amin begins his regime as a man of the people, making promises of a better life for all of Uganda. As his power increases, Amin gradually begins to distrust everyone around him, fearing a coup against his regime. Whitaker shows us Amin’s lust for power and the corrupt road that desire drives him down.

He brings Garrigan along for the ride, adopting him as an advisor and surrogate son. As both men get more power, they make more corrupt decisions.

Power produces fear as the men become paranoid about being watched or betrayed, especially Amin who is eventually destroyed by his fear of losing power.

The cinematography in “The Last King of Scotland” is purposefully and excellently executed. As the movie progresses Garrigan begins to turn away from his corrupt surrogate father, Amin, and shot after shot shows Garrigan from the perspective of a spy camera.

He is viewed through fences, windows and the like, all adding subtly to the suspense of the film. One is constantly wondering if Garrigan will be caught and killed by Amin.

Also, from the opening scenes of the film Amin is introduced to us initially not by shots of his face, but instead the camera focuses on Whitaker’s chest, covered with the buttoned down shirt of an army general.

The camera cuts to Whitaker’s chest many times throughout the rest of the film showing that as Amin becomes more corrupt his chest becomes more decorated with ropes and badges indicating worldly ranks and signs of power.

This particular cinematographic decision emphasizes the main theme of the film, which is that the heart of man is important above all. The heart can be a source of great strength or contain the darkest evil. As Amin’s chest becomes more decorated his heart becomes darker and darker.

McAvoy’s character is headed down the path of darkness, but as he is plunged into the consequences of his life of power, lust and corruption, he finally pulls himself away from Amin and his former lifestyle.

“The Last King of Scotland” provides an excellent example of how one should not live. Thus, it includes corruption in many forms. Sexual encounters with nudity, intense violence and torture, brief images of massacre and dismemberment, an abortion subplot and profanity are all showcased in the film.

Yet through all that, the line between what is corrupt and what is uplifting is clearly drawn. Undoubtedly a terrific film, “The Last King of Scotland” not only offers superb acting, a well written script and carefully planned cinematography, but also a harsh vision of a true story that happened to real people. Amid all the violence and corruption “The Last King of Scotland” features, this is undoubtedly the hardest part of the film to stomach.

Rebecca Bostic is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.