The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition)
by Kevin Macdonald
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DVD details
Actor: Forest Whitaker, Gillian Anderson, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurneyDirector: Kevin Macdonald
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; German (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: It's THAT good!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's one of the movies that is getting better every time you watch. Forest Whitaker is great (well, he won the Oscar finally). James McAvoy, in my opinion, steals the show. Let's be honest, the role of Idi Amin is made for the Oscar. The role of Nicholas Garrigan would have been easily shadowed and overpowered by Idi Amin without the great acting. James McAvoy hold himself well and equally against Forest Whitaker. There is certain danger, or bias, when an outsider portrays the so-called third world, even if s/he claims that s/he tried to tell the story from "their" perspective. This movie is not exception although with a lesser degree. It is a very emotional and sometimes violent movie that touches your heart. Enjoy. DVD Review: What the hell happened?
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie may be a classic, but I never did get what was really happening because I could only understand about one word in three! Everyone has some kind of impenetrable accent. I never could follow the story because I just couldn't understand what anyone was saying- Scottish accents- British accents- Ugandan accents!DVD Review: Idi Amin in All His Nastiness and Charm
Summary: 5 Stars
The Scottish doctor in this film chooses to hero-worship the wrong man--Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator played brilliantly and flamboyantly by Forest Whitaker in an Oscar-winning performance. (Of course Whitaker looks like the monster.) Amin charms and massages the ego of the star-struck physician who is insecure and incredibly na?ve. Graduating from Amin's personal doctor to his trusted advisor, he crosses the line and finds himself entrapped by his libido and his gullibility.
The movie has an air of authenticity that makes you think you are actually in Uganda. It looks and feels very real and believable and gives a picture of Africa that rings true.
Whitaker is extremely credible as the spellbinding leader who is also incredibly nasty to his own people. When the doctor tries to escape from Amin's clutches, he discovers firsthand the brutality of the tyrant. It's a brilliant film which uses the doctor's experience as the crucible to bring Amin's malignant dictatorship home to the viewer.
DVD Review: Kudos To Everyone Here, Not Just Whitaker
Summary: 4 Stars
I agree Forest Whitaker was very good as the famous mentally-disturbed leader of Uganda, Idi Amin, back in the 1970s but, despite the Oscar he received as "Best Actor," I thought the best thing about this film was the involving story. Once the co-star of the film, James McAvoy as "Dr.Nicholas Garrigan," became Amin's personal doctor this film, like a good book, became really difficult to put down.
It was a very interesting story which got better and better as it went along. It's also one you won't forget about in a few days. This one stays with you!
In real life, Amin was a brutal man and much more so than he is portrayed in this film. It's a disgrace he was able to live comfortably in exile until 2003. Whitaker's portrayal of the sociopath doesn't touch the surface of the Amin's evilness, but Amin, truth be told, was also a charmer. It's amazing how a little charm can make even a mass murderer look like a nice guy.
In addition to the fine acting performances of Whitaker and McAvoy, I thought the camera-work in here was well above-average, too. This is a nicely-filmed movie, and credit should go to cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. I don't hear much praise going his way but I really liked the visuals in here.
DVD Review: Masterful performances let down by a weak ending
Summary: 3 Stars
1970. Nicholas Garrigan graduates from medical school in Scotland. Unhappy with the idea of joining his father's practice, he instead decides to pick a country at random to go and work in. By chance, the country he picks is Uganda. He arrives whilst the country is rejoicing at the rise to power of the charismatic General Idi Amin Dada. By chance, Garrigan happens to treat the general after he is injured by a bull. Amin, a great fan of the Scottish people, insists on making Garrigan his personal physician. Initially Garrigan enjoys his privileged position and develops a personal friendship with Amin, scorning attempts by British diplomats to recruit him as a spy. However, both internal and international dissatisfaction with Amin's brutal repression of political enemies start to gather steam and Garrigan is caught in the whirlwind as Amin's rule begins to unravel.
The Last King of Scotland is not a true story, although the brutal nature of Amin's rule of Uganda is pretty accurate. Garrigan is a fictional creation (although he is very loosely based on a British soldier who was far more directly complicit with Amin's regime), ably played by James McAvoy, who convincingly portrays a young, callow doctor who rapidly finds himself out of his depth. However, most of the praise for the film centers on Forest Whitaker's stunning portrayal of Amin. In fact, 'portrayal' is wholly inadequate as a term. Whitaker pretty much becomes Amin for the duration of the movie and rightly won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his performance. He nails the contradictory nature of Amin, a man of tremendous charisma who could also snap into a cold-blooded and ruthless murderer in an instant. Gillian Anderson also impresses, although her role is little more than an extended cameo.
The movie overall is mostly impressive, with the optimism and hope of the first half gradually giving way to something much darker and more intense. However, this is accompanied by some problems. The movie takes a turn more for the fantastical towards the ending as Garrigan decides to assassinate Amin, and subsequent events are unconvincing (and extremely gruesome). Also, turning the 1976 Entebbe Airport hostage crisis into a mere backdrop for the finale feels like a bit of a slap in the face to those involved in this very real and dramatic event.
Whitaker's performance is unimpeachable and McAvoy manages to hold his own against him very well, but overall the somewhat muddled ending dilutes the earlier power of the movie. Also, Garrigan - and the viewer - are perhaps too isolated from the horrors of Amin's leadership. The addition of perhaps a secondary plot (maybe using the massively under-used Gillian Anderson character) showing the 'sharp end' of Amin's criminal actions may also have helped to put the sheer evil of this regime into better perspective.
The Last King of Scotland (***?) is an ambitious movie worth seeing for one of the great acting achievements of our time, but it unfortunately comes a bit unstuck towards the end. The film is available now on DVD in the UK and USA.
Description of The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition)
As Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, Forest Whitaker gives "one of the greatest performances of modern movie history" (Wall Street Journal), one that the Associated Press calls "nothing short of Oscar(r) worthy." This is Amin's incredible story as seen through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scotsman who becomes the volatile leader's personal physician, due in part to Amin's unexpected passion for Scottish culture -- Amin even proclaims himself "The Last King of Scotland". Seduced by Amin's charisma and blinded by decadence, Garrigan's dream life becomes a waking nightmare of betrayal and madness from which there is no escape. Inspired by real people and events, this gripping, suspenseful stunner is filled with performances you will never forget.As the evil Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, Forest Whitaker gives an unforgettable performance in The Last King of Scotland. Powerfully illustrating the terrible truth that absolute power corrupts absolutely, this fictionalized chronicle of Amin's rise and fall is based on the acclaimed novel by Giles Foden, in which Amin's despotic reign of terror is viewed through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a Scottish doctor who arrives in Uganda in the early 1970s to serve as Amin's personal physician. His outsider's perspective causes him to be initially impressed by Amin's calculated rise to power, but as the story progresses--and as Whitaker's award-worthy performance grows increasingly monstrous--The Last King of Scotland turns into a pointed examination of how independent Uganda (a British colony until 1962) became a breeding ground for Amin's genocidal tyranny. As Whitaker plays him, Amin is both seductive and horribly destructive--sometimes in the same breath--and McAvoy effectively conveys the tragic cost of his character's naivet?, which grows increasingly prone to exploitation. As directed by Kevin Macdonald (who made the riveting semi-documentary Into the Void), this potent cautionary tale my prompt some viewers to check out Barbet Schroeder's equally revealing documentary General Idi Amin Dada, an essential source for much of this film's authentic detail. --Jeff Shannon
Beyond The Last King of Scotland
 More from Forest Whitaker |  General Idi Amin Dada |  The Last King of Scotland (Paperback) |
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