The Last King of Scotland
222 words, 1 image 
Jim and I went to the Spa Centre cinema — on what turned out to be cheap ticket night — to see Forest Whitaker be Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland.
Debbie didn’t fancy it, so I went while she was teaching an evening class. Her loss though. She came home to some homemade pasta ready to boil, and some sauce ready to reheat… and some mess to tidy up.
The film was mostly very good indeed. The early scenes in rural Uganda were quite beautiful, and the contrast with the palaces in Kampala was striking. James McAvoy plays a young doctor who becomes part of Amin’s entourage. In his naivete, he doesn’t realise what’s going on around him until far too late. I don’t know how realistic that is, but it’s an interesting angle. One would naturally assume that one so close to the dictator was remiss in standing by and letting atrocities happen — but is it possible to simply not realise?
Forest Whitaker is always watchable — when he showed up in The Shield, he turned an already gripping programme into solid gold.
Towards the end there is some pretty heavy stuff — as you’d expect — including gore, death and mutilation. Just a warning there.
Aside from the occasional flabby section (in the script, not in the lead actor!) it’s excellent. Recommended.
March 21st, 2007 at 19:07
I haven’t seen the film yet but can thoroughly recommend the book. I hear the film deviates quite significantly from the book, so that might be a reason why his naivete is harder to explain - it makes complete sense in the book (and is none the less terrifying for it).
Have you seen Lord of War? Might be a good companion piece.