The last King of Scotland is a period piece thriller which tells of a dark time in history. Based on the book, it is a period piece set in Uganda in the 1970’s.  The time is perhaps the only real accurate historical telling is of the shrouded evil which was Idi Amin.  Idi Amin ruled from 1971 to 1979.   Despite being more of a story and hardly a docudrama, you still get a feeling during the film that you are silent witness to a terrifying time. This is a hard film to watch in that it is strictly for adults that can accept strong visuals.   

It is a tense ride that culminates in a not so simple ending where you are not delivered to Idi Amin’s final fall, but left knowing he was still in power and no hope for the country of Uganda was in sight.

This story has some political trappings such as the typical meddling westerners trying to influence other countries through weasel diplomats as useless spies. 

I personally recall the time growing up as news from Uganda made American headlines.  Stories of “The Butcher of Uganda” made me understand that outside the shores of America, the world was a cruel place.  The one story that stood out was of Idi Amin’s alleged cannibalism.  I wouldn’t doubt it was true.  Other unconfirmed stories are told of Amin keeping the heads of detractors in refrigerators which are never even approached in the film which to me was a mistake.   This movie makes no mention of his atrocities.  It only shows him as a brutal dictator that did in fact make a lot of people “go away” when he felt the least bit concerned. 

What is it about our fascination with people that kill so many others?  Forrest Whitaker plays Idi Amin with absolute conviction and stunning versatility.  You see both sides of Amin; his charm and charismatic speeches along with his disconnected evil where you see him look at someone and you fear “is this it?”  He holds you there while you try to decipher the look he is offering.  You sense that at any moment this man could decide he wants you dead and you never have an easy feeling about him. 

Having said that, in comes our fictional character, Scotsman Nick Garrigan played amazingly by James McAvoy whom is based loosely on an English confidant of Amin’s during his rule.  Without spoiling the film, Nicholas is a young man that doesn’t know what he is getting himself into, but he does know he too enjoys the power and position.  Nicholas and Idi Amin meet by chance after Nick has heard of this new leader and curiously attended a speech where Amin has just left.  We seem to catch this relationship starting sometime soon after Amin has come to power and still faces opposition from his predecessor Milton Obote.  Moreover for a long time Nick doesn’t fear Amin like all others do.  Amin draws Nick close to him because Nick was brave enough from the start to tell Amin how he felt and be his own man.   McAvoy’s performance is clearly eclipsed by Forrest Whitaker, but the are clearly working off of each other’s energy in this film at peak performance.   While McAvoy plays the part of Nick with both pawn like innocence, you can feel he sees himself as intellectually above Amin. 

This sets up the story well.  Nick takes his own path while Amin is already on a broader path.  Nick eventually gets in over his head and finally comes to terms with his own transgressions against humanity.

What is important for you as a viewer is to not see this as a historical documentary but as a story.  It does have the Hollywood underpinnings of romance, betrayal and revenge.  It does have some very brutal visuals and does deliver a Hollywood ending.   

The pacing of the film is Hollywood too despite the attempts to deliver flawed characters that we wonder if we are meant to support or hate them for their flaws, specifically Nick Garrigan the protagonist of the film.

Despite Idi Amin being responsible for at least 100,000 murders of his countrymen, much of the alleged atrocities are not documentable and he will evade a worse historical record in history and this film leaves much of what Amin really was off screen.  If you did not know of Idi Amin’s background before the film you really never learn just how evil he was, and this film does make a case for him being a very evil man.   But alas the film is about Nick Garrigan, not Idi Amin.  If you don’t appreciate this as a story and not a document of history then you will find some of the plotlines contrived.