The Last King of Scotland (film)

The Last King of Scotland
UK Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kevin Macdonald
Produced by	Charles Steel Lisa Bryer Andrea Calderwood
Screenplay by	Peter Morgan Jeremy Brock
Based on	The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden
Starring	Forest Whitaker James McAvoy Gillian Anderson Kerry Washington Simon McBurney
Music by	Alex Heffes
Cinematography	Anthony Dod Mantle
Editing by	Justine Wright
Studio	DNA Films Film 4
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s)	27 September 2006 (2006-09-27) (United States) 12 January 2007 (2007-01-12) (United Kingdom)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United Kingdom Germany
Language	English Swahili
Budget	US$6 million
Box office	US$48,362,207

The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald. The film was a co-production between companies from the United Kingdom and the United States, including Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4.

The Last King of Scotland tells the fictional story of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda and becomes the personal physician to the dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). The film is based on factual events of Amin's rule and the title comes from a reporter in a press conference who wishes to verify whether Amin declared himself the King of Scotland. Amin was known to invent and adopt fancy imperial titles for himself.

The Last King of Scotland received wide critical acclaim. Particular focus went to Whitaker, who received outstanding critical acclaim for his performance as dictator Idi Amin in the film. He won the Best Leading Actor award at the Academy Awards among others, and the film was also a financial success.

Plot

In 1970, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) graduates from medical school in Scotland. Faced with dull prospect at home, he decides to seek adventure abroad by working at a Ugandan missionary clinic run by Dr. David Merrit (Adam Kotz) and his wife, Sarah (Gillian Anderson). Garrigan quickly becomes attracted to Sarah, who enjoys his attention but refuses to engage in an extramarital affair with him. Coinciding with this is General Idi Amin's (Forest Whitaker) coup d’état to overthrow incumbent president Milton Obote. Garrigan sincerely believes that Amin will help the country, while Sarah tells him it will be more of the same. Garrigan is called to a minor car accident involving Amin where he treats his hand. Amin, fond of Scotland as a symbol of resilience, is delighted to discover the doctor's nationality. Their friendship is cemented when Amin exchanges his military shirt for Garrigan's "Scotland" shirt. Later, Amin invites Garrigan to become his personal physician and take charge of modernising the country's health care system.

Garrigan soon becomes Amin's trusted confidant and is relied on for much more than medical care, such as matters of state. Although Garrigan is aware of violence around Kampala, he accepts Amin's explanation that cracking down on the opposition will bring lasting peace to the country. Garrigan discovers that the polygamous leader has ostracised the youngest of his three wives, Kay (Kerry Washington), because she has given birth to an epileptic son, Mackenzie (Apollo Okwenje Omamo). In the course of treating Mackenzie, Garrigan falls for Kay, and the two become lovers. Eventually, he begins to lose faith in Amin as he witnesses the increasing paranoia, repressive murders and xenophobia in expelling South Asians from the country. Amin replaces the doctor's British passport with a Ugandan one to prevent him from escaping which leads Garrigan to a frantic visit for help to Stone (Simon McBurney), the local British Foreign Office representative. He is told that the British will help him leave Uganda on one condition: Garrigan must use his role as Amin's confidant to assassinate him, but Garrigan refuses.

His situation worsens when Kay informs him that she has become pregnant with his child. If Amin realizes, she will be murdered for her infidelity, so she begs Garrigan to carry out a secret abortion. Delayed by Amin's command that he attend a press conference for Western journalists, Garrigan fails to meet Kay at the appointed time; she concludes that she has been abandoned and seeks out a primitive abortion in a nearby village, where she is apprehended by Amin's forces. Garrigan searches for her and finds her savagely mutilated corpse on an autopsy table, with her arms and legs severed and reattached in the opposite manner. As he falls retching to his knees, he finally confronts the palpable inhumanity of Amin's regime, and decides that killing him is the only way to put a stop to it all. Shortly thereafter, a hijacked aircraft is flown to Entebbe by pro-Palestinian hijackers seeking asylum from agents of international law. Amin, intending to help them, rushes to the scene, taking Garrigan along. At the airport, one of Amin's bodyguards discovers Garrigan's plot to poison Amin, under the ruse of giving him pills for a headache. His treachery revealed, Garrigan is beaten by Amin's henchmen before Amin himself arrives and discloses that he is aware of the doctor's relationship with Kay. As punishment, Garrigan's chest is pierced with meat hooks and he is hanged by the skin.

While Amin arranges a plane for the release non-Jewish passengers, Garrigan's torturers temporarily leave him bleeding on the floor while they relax in another room. Garrigan's medical colleague, Dr. Junju (David Oyelowo), takes advantage of the opportunity to rescue him, at the same time urging him to tell the world the truth about Amin's brutal regime, asserting that because Garrigan is white the world will believe him. Junju gives Garrigan his own jacket, enabling him to mingle unnoticed with the crowd of freed hostages and board the plane. When the torturers discover Garrigan's absence, Junju is shot dead. The plane departs with Garrigan on board; Amin is informed too late to prevent it while Garrigan tearfully remembers the people of Uganda. The closing shows real footage of Amin, as well as figures such as the 300,000 that died under his regime, and his eventual death in 2003, in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Cast

• Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin
• James McAvoy as Nicholas Garrigan
• Gillian Anderson as Sarah Merrit
• Kerry Washington as Kay Amin
• Simon McBurney as Stone
• Apollo Okwenje Omamo as Mackenzie
• David Oyelowo as Dr. Junju

Release

The Last King of Scotland received a limited release in the United States on 27 September 2006, with a UK release on 12 January 2007, a French release on 14 February 2007 and a German release on 15 March 2007. In the United States the film was rated "R" by the MPAA for strong violence, gruesome images, nudity and strong language.

In the United States and Canada, the film earned $17,606,684 at the box office. In the United Kingdom, the film took $11,131,918. Its combined worldwide gross was $48,362,207.

The film was released on DVD in North America on 17 April 2007.

Reception

Academy Awards record
1. Best Actor (Forest Whitaker)
Golden Globe Awards record
1. Best Actor - Drama (Forest Whitaker)
BAFTA Awards record
1. Best British Film
2. Best Actor (Forest Whitaker)
3. Best Adapted Screenplay

Whitaker received outstanding critical acclaim for his performance as dictator Idi Amin in the film. He won the Best Leading Actor award at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors' Guild and the BAFTAs, in addition to awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics' Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics' Association, the National Board of Review and many other critics awards, for a total of at least 23 major awards, with at least one more nomination. The movie currently holds a "fresh" 87% on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Whitaker's performance was dubbed as the best foreign male actor performance at the Egyptian International film festival in 2007.

The film was received well in Uganda, where it premiered two days before Whitaker won the Best Actor Academy Award.

The film received a 2007 BAFTA Award for Best British Film and the BAFTA award for Best Adapted Screenplay, in addition to receiving nominations for Best Film. James McAvoy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

The film was also considered a financial success, grossing more than eight times its budget.

Historical accuracy

While the character of Idi Amin and the events surrounding him in the movie are mostly factual, Garrigan is a fictional character. His story is loosely based on events in the life of English-born Bob Astles. Like the novel on which it is based, the film mixes fiction with real events in Ugandan history to give an impression of Amin and Uganda under his authoritarian rule. While the basic events of Amin's life are followed, the film often departs from actual history in the details of particular events.

In real life and in the book, Kay Amin was made pregnant by her lover Dr. Mbalu Mukasa. She died during a botched abortion operation by Mukasa, who subsequently committed suicide. Bob Astles, upon whom the character of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan is based, believes that her body was mutilated not on Amin's orders, but by Mukasa while attempting to hide it. Amin never had a son named Campbell.

Contrary to the wording of the film's coda, three hostages died during Operation Entebbe. The body of a fourth hostage, 75-year-old Dora Bloch, who was killed by Ugandan Army officers at a nearby hospital, was eventually returned to Israel. A small historical error regards the flags shown flying at Entebbe Airport: The green-and-white flag of the Republic of Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) is clearly shown flying alongside the flags of the other African nations, despite its non-recognition by Uganda and the international community.

External links

• The Last King of Scotland at the Internet Movie Database
• The Last King of Scotland at AllRovi
• The Last King of Scotland at Box Office Mojo
• The Last King of Scotland at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Last King of Scotland at Metacritic
• Time Out Set Visit