The Last King of Scotland (film)
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| The Last King of Scotland | |
|---|---|
 Teaser poster for The Last King of Scotland |
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| Directed by | Kevin MacDonald |
| Written by | Novel: Giles Foden Screenplay: Peter Morgan Jeremy Brock |
| Starring | Forest Whitaker James McAvoy |
| Music by | Alex Heffes |
| Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle |
| Editing by | Justine Wright |
| Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 27, 2006 (USA) (limited) January 12, 2007 (UK) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$6 million |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Last King of Scotland is an Academy Award-winning 2006 British film based on Giles Foden's award-winning debut novel of the same name. It was adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock and directed by Kevin MacDonald.
The film received a 2007 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for best British film and earned Forest Whitaker an Academy Award, a BAFTA award, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an NAACP Image Award for best actor.
It received a limited release in the United States on September 27, 2006, with a UK release on January 12, 2007, a French release on February 14, 2007, and a German release on March 15, 2007.
Forest Whitaker, who won more critics' awards for his performance than any other leading actor in 2006, [1] stars as the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. As fictional characters, James McAvoy portrays Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (very loosely based on events in the life of English-born Bob Astles); Gillian Anderson plays the health-aide wife of the doctor (Adam Kotz) with whom Garrigan first works in Uganda; and Simon McBurney plays a British diplomat.
The DVD is set to be released on April 17, 2007.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) comes to Uganda and works in a small hospital in the countryside. The new Ugandan President Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) happens to get lightly injured when he is in the region, and Garrigan is asked to treat him. While treating Amin, Garrigan is distracted by the suffering of a cow also injured in the accident. He boldly grabs Amin's gun and kills the cow. Initially irritated by his actions, Amin begins to admire Garrigan's boldness and initiative; Amin also loves Scotland. Thus, Garrigan becomes Amin's personal physician and advisor.
Garrigan soon begins to descend deeper into the moral corruption of Amin's Uganda. At first Garrigan ignores the crimes Amin is committing across the country, but he is forced to acknowledge their reality when a comment of his leads Amin to kill the health minister. Garrigan tries to quit working for Amin only to discover that Amin has confiscated his passport. Confronting the reality of Amin and the consequences of his own actions, he is encouraged by a British diplomat to assassinate Amin. Garrigan, seeing no way out, falls further when he enters into an affair with one of Amin's wives, and impregnates her. Garrigan's reckless actions inevitably lead to Amin finding out. Garrigan finds her mutilated by Amin and then attempts to poison him. Amin's suspicion is confirmed during the Air France hijacking at Entebbe International Airport: Garrigan prevents a soldier from taking the poison which he had intended for Amin, after which he is brutally tortured. He is saved by a Ugandan doctor who is killed as a consequence of his actions. Garrigan escapes with a group of released hostages.
Like the book on which it is based, the film mixes fiction with some real events to give an impression of the person that was Amin and Uganda under his totalitarian rule. While the basic events of Amin's life are followed, the film often departs in the details of particular events.
[edit] Differences between the book and the film
- The film is only loosely based on Giles Foden's novel; in fact, director Kevin MacDonald discouraged actor James McAvoy from reading the book because it differed so much from the script.[2]
- Nicholas Garrigan's relationship with Amin is less intimate in the book than it is in the movie. Garrigan is a more passive and an arguably less sympathetic character in the book (also, his father is a domineering Presbyterian minister, and not a doctor as he is in the film).
- In the book, British Intelligence has a hand in appointing Garrigan to the position of Amin's personal physician, while in the movie Garrigan's appointment appears to be entirely due to the whims of Amin.
- The character of Sarah Merrit (played by Gillian Anderson) in the movie is a composite of three different characters from the book (Joyce Merrit, Sara Zach and Marina Perkins). Many supporting characters in the book (e.g. Frederik Swanepoel, William Waziri, Major Weir, and Angol-Steve) are absent entirely in the movie.
- In the movie, Garrigan's colleague at the hospital is the Ugandan Dr. Thomas Junju; in the book, he is a fellow Scot, Dr. Colin Paterson.
- In the movie, Garrigan tends to Amin's epileptic son Mackenzie when he is having a seizure. The equivalent scene in the book has Garrigan retrieving a block of lego from the nose of Amin's son Campbell.
- In the movie, Amin's wife Kay has an affair with Garrigan and the resulting pregnancy leads to her capture and death before Garrigan can perform an abortion. In the book, Kay (a far more minor character than in the film) does not have an affair with Garrigan; she falls pregnant by Peter Mbalu-Mukasa (an African doctor who does not even appear in the film) and Garrigan refuses to perform the abortion. Kay and Peter are killed soon after.
- In both the book and the movie, the British diplomat, Stone, asks Garrigan to kill Amin by poisoning him. In the movie, Garrigan attempts to do so and is caught out by Amin; in the book, Garrigan doesn't even attempt to poison Amin (he even admits to Amin that he was asked to do it). Since Garrigan doesn't betray Amin, Amin does not order Garrigan's torture and death as he does in the film (and even considers their friendship intact when the story ends).
- In the book, Garrigan does not escape with the hostages from Entebbe as he does in the movie. He leaves Africa during the aftermath of the Uganda-Tanzania War, and when he returns to Britain, he is distrusted and vilified by the press, which accuses him of being Amin's right-hand man and actively taking part in the dictator's atrocities.
- The film's depiction of the Entebbe Hijacking is different from the real event: in the film non-Israeli passengers are released while in reality only non-Jews were released. The film also avoids depicting the German hijackers who led the operation and gives the impression that the hijackers are purely Arab.
[edit] Cast
- Forest Whitaker — Idi Amin Dada (Academy Award Winner for Best Actor - 2007, SAG Award)
- James McAvoy — Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, his personal physician
- Gillian Anderson — Sarah Merrit, wife of Dr. Merrit
- Kerry Washington — Kay Amin, one of Idi Amin's wives
- Simon McBurney — Nigel Stone, British diplomat
- Adam Kotz — Dr. Merrit, British doctor in rural Uganda
- David Oyelowo — Dr. Thomas Junju
- Abby Mukiibi— Masanga, Amins hatchetman.
For the role Whitaker immersed himself in research, reading books about Amin, watching documentary footage, and meeting with Amin's friends and family. He mastered the East African accent and learned Swahili which he uses throughout the film.
Method acting took a toll on Whitaker, who claims Amin is "all I did and thought for five months. I'd go to sleep and be dreaming like Idi Amin."[1] He even had difficulty losing Amin's Ugandan accent. "As soon as we wrapped, I thought I had lost the accent, but when I talked to people, I realized I hadn't." Whitaker says he took showers, "trying to get the guy to leave me. I needed to wash those darker passions away."[1]
Giles Foden, who wrote the novel upon which the film is based, appears onscreen as a British journalist. The journalist from the Times who Garrigan is taken to meet by Stone is played by Dick Stockley who has lived and worked in Uganda for 20 years as a doctor.
[edit] Critical Reception and Awards
| 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 considerable critical acclaim for his performance as dictator Idi Amin in the film, winning the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and the BAFTA Award, for best actor 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.
The film further received BAFTA awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best British Film, in addition to receiving nominations for Best Supporting Actor (James McAvoy) and Best Film.
[edit] Trivia
- The pornographic film viewed by a drugged up Amin was Deep Throat.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Oscar Watch: Forest Whitaker Takes on a Tyrant", People Magazine, New York City: Time Inc., 9 October 2006.
[edit] See also
- Kingdom of Scotland
- List of monarchs of Scotland
- Operation Entebbe
- List of historical people portrayed as villains
- Fictional portrayals of psychopaths
- Films featuring a white protagonist in Africa
[edit] External links
[edit] Interviews
- Actor James McAvoy and Director Kevin Macdonald interview at Future Movies
- Forest Whitaker interview for The Last King of Scotland at Press Archive
[edit] Reviews
- Last King of Scotland Reviews at Metacritic.com
- The Last King of Scotland at Rotten Tomatoes
- Movie review at The Blurb
