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Movie Review: The Last King of Scotland |
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Monday, 23 October 2006 |
By Timothy Chow
 Today I saw The Last King of Scotland, which turned out to be fairly decent, but not overly awesome aside from Forest Whitaker's performance as Idi Amin, who like all the great dictators of modern history, managed to somehow charm the public into supporting him and then between that moment and the time he was deposed in 1979, killed 300,000-500,000 of his own countrymen. Watching him on screen was terrifying and yet incredibly engaging, from the moment that the camera introduced him to a jubilant crowd in the Ugandan countryside where he pronounced his "I am a simple man like you" speech to the moments where he butchers people left and right and it's creepy as ****. The mood swings that he exhibits and Forest's ability to capture that and translate it into reality is wrenching, and definitely put shivers down my spine.
The movie begins with the fictional Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) as he sets out to escape his home and do something interesting and unique with his life. This is an important note to make because it is not out of his genuine desire to help those who are less fortunate that he goes to Africa, but that of a desire to experience more and to see out of self-interest. This plays an integral role even thirty minutes into the movie when he accepts Amin's offer to become his personal physician, neglecting his duties to both the poor countryside people, as well as those to the other doctor out there. What follows is gradually a warming of ties between him and the dictator, and his blindness to all that is around Amin; he becomes charmed, and can't see all the horror and terror. Only when it's bluntly revealed to him does he finally accept it for what it is, and shocked and terrified, he makes bids to escape, but he's too far down in the shit so to speak, for things to get fixed.
Like a lot of movies about Africa, a large part of the subtext in this film involves the whole "white man being unfairly privileged" concept, ranging from the fact that Nicholas lacks real maturity and responsibility and has a nice safe home to return to in Scotland and that the black man's problem is theirs, to the extension of olden-days imperialism on the continent, first through slavery then by latter day economic imperialism. Set in the years from 1971 to 1976, the movie richly displays both these issues, addressing them by making Nicholas not particularly likeable, and indeed some ways, rather despicable, and upping the empathic factor for Idi Amin. This is not to say that the movie portrays a sympathetic dictator; he is not one that Ugandans or even any human being can forgive, but in some ways, his accusations of economic imperialism ring true.
What falls short in this film however is the editing and pacing, especially in the first thirty minutes to an hour when it's especially uneven and definitely a bit off-putting. Scenes jump from one to another without any real connection, highlighting the vibrancy of the country and all, and while this works later on, that's only because connecting tissue has developed by then with the ominous sense of doom pervading throughout. Though this is really the only main fault, its significance in establishing an atmosphere onto which latter parts could be even further enhanced is substantial as these scenes are essentially squandered away when they could've been put to good use in establishing story, characters and mood. And while the latter part of the movie definitely gets the engine starting and running at full speed, it's hard not to feel a little disappointed at its slow start.
4 out of 5 stars |
