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The Last King of ScotlandDirector: Kevin McDonald If ever someone deserved one of them there Oscars, it was this here Forest Whitaker after that pretty spooky impression of Idi Amin he does in the movie about some monarch from England who is not actually a monarch … come to think of it, I’m not sure if he was from England either. Think he was Scotland, but that’s part of England, yeah?. He was black too, this royal dude.
I’m not sure if it’s because Amin was actually charming and charismatic or because Forest has a wonky eye, but The Dude was definitely finding himself feeling a little sorry for the big fella. Forest goes and shows how what initially drove Amin was national pride, but somewhere along the way, he turns hard left and becomes a maniacal freak who has this insane perspective on life (see Verbatim below). Kinda bit like when there’s a sheep in the valley at home and all of a sudden – BANG – the missus up and whacks you one verbally for something petty like leaving muddy shoes on the porch, or on account her tea’s too hot and you’ve gone and spilled the whole cup down the back of her nightie. “It was an accident” I yelled, but no. Like I said: Petty. So what this flick concerns itself about is how this here Nicholas Garrigan (Kevin McAvoy) becomes Amin’s private doctor on the back of some handy needle and thread work in the jungle, and a cool soccer top. The Doc reckons Amins a funny, likable, big barrel of laughs and expensive gifts, but we soon learn that he’s in the process of wiping out a huge percentage of the Ugandan population on account he has a couple o’ screws lose, and his elevator don’t go all the way to the roof. That’s when the Doc tries to shoot through, but can’t ‘cause he knocked up Amin’s missus in a random act of stupidity while on a bender. Things look pretty bad for all and sundry after that, and Kevin McDonald does a fairly decent job of cranking up the suspense and tension – enough so The Dude got a wicked foot cramp near the end of the flick. Intense would be how I summed this one up in a word, only I used ‘shocking’ below, so what would I know? Verbatim: In a word: Shocking |
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What was I yabbering about? Oh yeah. This Last King of Scotland. It’s the sort of thing whereby you grow up knowing this guy was a psycho (Amin, not Whitaker – although I don’t know much about Forest … if that is indeed his real name), but you find yourself liking Amin. He’s like that goofy kid at school who you only let hang out with you on account he was 7’8” and could bench press a school bus.
