Movies on DVD: The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland, or Ghost Dog as Dictator of Uganda as I like to think of it, is a film that attempts to take a gritty look at the Warlord Amin’s (Forest Whitaker, in his Oscar-winning role) dictatorship of the African country in a fictionalized account through the eyes of his doctor, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy). Garrigan comes from a wealthy Scottish family, and after receiving his degree, and longing to get away from his overbearing father, he sets out to the first (well, second) country that he randomly picks off the globe, little does he know what he’s getting himself into. The hardest thing about watching this movie is that you know what is inevitably coming, you know that the fictional play-world that Amin crafts for Garrigan cannot last long and is bound to come crashing down. Garrigan’s somewhat willful ignorance to everything else Amin does is probably the most interesting point of this movie, as it shows what those of privilege will do to maintain their status, knowingly or otherwise. My main point of nitpick about the way the plot unfolds though, is that the conflict is always the same, it is rather obvious that Amin commits atrocities while serving up plates of lies about improving the country to Garrigan, wash, rinse, repeat and you have almost every scene after the first thirty minutes until the last twenty. Thusly, it is the ending that picks this movie back up, and works up some real emotional concern for the well being of our protagonist. While the acting may be the supposed thing to watch in this film, I found the cinematography to be well done, albeit similarly captured to Hotel Rwanda, a lot of handheld, shaky camera shots during the scenes of action, as well as epic angles capturing the charisma and charm that Amin could sometimes possess. In the end, this film is interesting, if not entertaining, and certainly worth watching at least once.

My IMDB Rating: 8 Stars