Amin is crazed
“The Last King of Scotland” is one of those movies – “Blood Diamond” is another
– that stops you cold and forces you to look at life in a bigger way than you
did just before you walked into the theater. Uganda is real; Idi Amin was real.
The fact that 300,000 Ugandans died under his regime is real. The terrible kick
of this movie comes partly from its truth and partly from the mesmerizing
performance of Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin.
The movie
opens with a fine scene of a newly minted doctor, Nicholas Garrigan (James
McAvoy), in full blown internal rebellion at his father’s assumption that he
will join him in his medical practice. On the second spin of a table globe to
determine where he will go for his escape, Nicholas picks Uganda. Traveling with
little but his medical bag and his Scottish identity, the young man leaps out of
his father’s plan and reports for work at an African clinic run by Dr. Merrit
(Adam Kotz) with the help of his wife Sarah (Gillian Anderson).
This short
section of the movie is particularly moving because the Merrits, beautifully
acted by Kotz and Anderson, are examples of those very rare, selfless people we
admire but usually fail to emulate. They help people without a moment’s thought
of themselves. They are British in Africa and they simply work around the clock
to cure or alleviate the grim illnesses that come through the door of their
clinic. That’s it.
Nicholas
works alongside them with a growing sense of dedication until one day he is
called on to fix a minor injury for Idi Amin. Amin, entranced by the young man’s
Scottish background and the fact that he has the strength to talk back,
convinces him to become his personal doctor and advisor. From that moment
forward, the movie belongs to Forest Whitaker. He creates a madman who shows
moments of charm which usually precede hideous outbursts of brutality. It is
Nicholas’s lot to see slowly through the charm to the evil essence of the man
within. Amin is crazed.
Once again we
watch what happens when such people gain power and use it to exact obedience
from ordinary people. It is hard to recommend a movie that is this hard to
watch, but remember before saying no, that though it is fiction, this man was
real. This is happening, as it always has, in countries all over the world, but
the stakes are bigger now, so a new element of fear infects the story. Forest
Whitaker gives us the fright of our lives in this man who sprayed his cruelty at
random and without reason. There comes a point where melodrama intrudes, but
just when we are ready to become critical, the reality of the man and his
genocide overwhelm any flaws. Forest Whitaker has given us something awful to
remember.
Copyright (c) Illusion