Customer Reviews

The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As much as I enjoyed this film Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Idi Amin is frightening. When you first meet Amin he is fun, approachable and it was easy to find inspiration in his words and personality. Throughout the movie his personality changes from inspiring to paranoid and terrifying. Whitaker's performance flows naturally in and out of these two men trapped in one body. He never misplaces his anger in a sweet scene; his glints of admiration never seep out during a frenzied rant. Whitaker avoids all hints of schizophrenia and ignores all opportunities to dive into multiple personality disorder. Garrigan is unaware of what's happening in Uganda at first, but even after he realizes what Amin is doing, he does nothing to stop him. During the movie, I had to restrain myself from yelling at Garrigan to stop what he's doing, to leave right away or to just do what had to be done. McAvoy's seamlessly grows his character from an acorn to a diseased oak.

The supporting cast isn't outshined by the main characters. Kerry Washington plays Kay Amin, Idi Amin's third wife. Her performance is tender, perplexing and sexy. Gillian Anderson plays Sarah Merrit, Garrigan's first love interest in the story. Her sage words and cool demeanor will be left ringing in your ears by the end of the movie. Simon McBurney, Nigel Stone's character, is monstrous in the covert, James Bond sort of way. His maniacal character is not over acted, absolutely to the credit to Stone.

Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan use an historic figure to tell a cautionary tale about what happens when you let fear decide who runs your country and what happens when your blind ambition overrules your moral center. Their characters are complete and lacking no texture. The temptation to make characters who are strictly monsters or heroes is avoided. Each character, even Amin, is not strictly good, nor bad, but products of their circumstances. I found the recipe for creating a monster far too realistic to be comfortable and for that I thank the writers for giving me the opportunity to feel that level of discomfort. Even the hero of this movie is only slightly heroic; leaving the melodramatic phony heroics for a superhero movie. Garrigan's transformation left me wondering if I could be any stronger than he is, given the situation he got himself into. I was impressed that the cinematographers and directors made a point of changing the camera style, lighting and framing to fit the mood of the movie. There are scenes where the sweat on someone's face seems radiant in the dark. There is an impressive use of light to set mood that doesn't fall into the cliché parenthesis.

This shattered my personal peace. It has left me to question my own behavior. Have I paid enough attention to my own life? Have I let raw, unadulterated ambition kill parts of my humanity? What would I do in that situation? At what point would I run screaming from Uganda? Can we afford to be afraid and let that fear color our decisions when it comes to our government? How can I tell if someone is a monster when they are so charismatic? Has my ambition hurt other people?" The Last King of Scotland" is a heart pounding drama that left me uneasy, utterly disappointed with the quality of the characters' behavior and inspired by the quality of the film making. Missing this movie would be bad for your cinematic knowledge and for your personal growth.

Dr Garrigan (James McAvoy) expects to find exotism in Uganda. He certainly will find it, especially after meeting the country's President, Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) and becoming his personal physician. A chain of events will change Garrigan's life, forever.

Absolutely wonderful, brilliant cast. I especially approve of Whitaker's "African" accent in English. Excellent portrayal of those people. McAvoy's character is extremely naive and he does a great acting job.

The ending may be quite shocking to some, I myself couldn't bear to watch a few minutes of very gruesome (but necessary and justified) violence (after 1h45 minutes of watching).

Certainly not a disappointment.
A well directed film, I highly recommend it.

Bonjour,

Faire attention, pour ceux qui comme moi ne sont pas trop bilingue, j'ai toujours été satisfaite, jusqu'à maintenant, de mes achats sur amazone.ca, cependant, en ce qui concerne le film The last king of scotland, même si la description le dit langage anglais, français, il n'est seulement qu'en anglais et sous-titré en français.

Cela dit, malgré tout j'ai bien aimé le film.

Merci.

The amazion description tell's you what it's about so I just tell what I think of it. It is has a brilliant cast and the acting is really good. The script is well written and is a terrific portrayal of a true story. It deserved all the awards it got and probably deserved more. A must buy, it will be worth it.

This movie is based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and his increasingly erratic behaviour. Forest Whitaker is brilliant in acting the role of Idi Amin. He is sure to win an award for this one! He had to act the jolly fellow one minute and the mad man the next minute. He used the media to his advantage as his regime slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his countrymen.

James McAvoy who plays the part of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan is also very good. Watching Amin and the young doctor throw themselves in the shower of power is both frightening and revolting.

This movie was filmed in Uganda which makes it that much more credible. It's a fantastic movie with a great cast, but some of the scenes are not for the faint-hearted.

It's the kind of movie that makes you see what power can do to men. It also makes you see how different things are in other countries, how they can think differently and how their toleration and endurance is tested daily...

I recommend this movie to anyone that is interested in the history of other countries, such as this one, Uganda. This movie is about love, hate, horror, joy, innocence, but mostly about POWER of man!

While I found the acting to be excellent and undoubtedly the storyline was true, I feel that some of the scenes were so graphic that they should not have been in the movie. I, for one, do not need to have someone literally paint a picture for me - I can imagine without seeing. The graphics should be used in documentaries only!

It is difficult to believe that man can be so cruel and insensitive where it comes to others' and their lives, but when it come to himself he cannot imagine that he would, or could ever receive the same type of treatment. While we seem to be so concerned about the people in our own countries, and the treatment they receive by others - it blows my mind that we can and do treat these people in the same manner - or perhaps even worse! This movie portrays just this. Who are we kidding........? Given money and power - are we all the same?