A great king
The Last King of Scotland is a tough movie. It combines the brewing, tyrannical nature of a trustworthy man luring an innocent, naive young budding doctor into his web. The story follows the emergence of Uganda President Amin, who takes over a communistic Uganda starving for a strong leader. When President Amin meets a young Scottish doctor named Nicholas Garrigan, things begin to look up for the doctor, or so he thinks. Garrigan helps Amin out and soon becomes good friends with the president. The President, who enjoys Garrigan’s company, convinces the doctor to become a permanent fixture in his up and coming staff. Garrigan soon finds out that not all is what it seems with Amin. Amin’s true nature begins to rear its head and Garrigan finds himself in the middle of Amin’s madness.
I’m not sure if you agree with this or not, but Forest Whitaker has scared the shit out of me since his football player role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He either plays really weird roles (Ghost Dog) or scary, tough roles (this movie). He’s got a large amount of range, but he plays ‘scary’ really well. After watching him as President Amin, I now understand why he received an Academy Award for his role. He will pull you in with James McAvoy’s Garrigan and convince you that you’re doing the right thing. Before you know it, you’re watching him kill innocent people and do some of the most horrific things imaginable (you’ll see at the end). He plays Amin’s role perfectly. As for McAvoy, he does an equally impressive job as Garrigan. He shows the careless nature of a young graduate out to change the world. He shows a wonderfully innocent invincible nature and it’s hard to watch it all break down. McAvoy, whom I think is one of the brightest actors of our decade, puts in a performance that is only overshadowed by Whitaker.
Keeping this all together and making it all possible for both actors to come out smelling like roses is a talented director Kevin McDonald and a wonderful screenplay from Peter Morigan and Jeremy Brock. Without the words from the writers, who created a beautifully balanced film and a wonderful slow moving atmosphere change, and the perfect direction by MacDonald to keep it all on track, this movie would not have worked as well as it did. Are there issues in the film? None. The Last King of Scotland tells viewers how to feel and when to feel and a movie that does that can do no wrong. It grabs the audience and doesn’t let them go until the credits start rolling.
As for the blu-ray portion of the film, it looks great, but not perfect. I’ve seen better transfers, but it outshines a lot of what I’ve seen in the last week or so. There is some graininess to some of the dark scenes, which is a persistent problem when the HD transfer isn’t as good as it could be. Still, it’s much better than the DVD version of the film and the sound is absolutely beautiful and brutal (only because some of the scenes can be hard to take). A good blu-ray presentation overall.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– 7 Deleted Scenes with commentary by director Kevin McDonald (optional)
– Forest Whitaker Idi Amin Featurette
– Capturing Idi Amin Documentary
– FMC presents Casting Session – The Last King of Scotland
Really excellent features driven mainly by the featurette and documentary. They add a lot to the film, though I think there should have been a little bit more to them (this film was up for multiple Academy Awards when it came out).