Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Last King of Scotland (2006)


5 comments:

  1. The last king of Scotland

    The film “the last king of Scotland” isn´t a film about an Scottish monarch like you could guess because of the name, it’s a film based on the novel by Giles Folden about a Scottish boy called Nicolas Garrigan who goes to Uganda in 1971 to work there as a doctor. In Uganda the dictator Idi Amin is the leader of the country and he has a big affinity to Scotland. In the 1970’s there was a civil war in Uganda between president Amin and his enemies.

    At the beginning of the film Nicolas Garrigan, who has become a doctor, goes to Uganda as a volunteer in a poor clinic. There the dictator Amin visits the people in this village. As he leaves the village he has a traffic accident where Nicolas vets the president.
    The dictator is very fascinated above Nicolas’ origin and wants Nicolas’ to become his personal physician. Nicolas accepts this offer and gets a good friendship to Amin.
    At Amin’s palace Nicolas lives in a big luxury and forgets the reality above the live in Uganda, so he protects the dictator from foreign critics.
    At first Nicolas ignore the dictator’s crime, but after the dead of Amin’s health minister, who is killed by Amin because of a mistake he gets to know how tyrannic Amin is and how badly he controls the country and the power.
    Garrigan tries to leave the county but he is prohibited by Amin. Later his passport is changed to a Ugandan passport and so he asked the British embassy. But they just help him if he kills Amin, which Nicolas defeats.
    So on Nicolas falls in love with one of Amin’s wives and she gets pregnant of him and is killed by Amin.
    After this has happened Nicolas tries to kill the president with some pills. His plan doesn’t work because Nicolas and Amin have to go to the hi-jacking which Amin assisted. There Nicolas’ pills are founded by Amin’s safety director and Amin orders to kill Garrigan.
    With a Ugandan doctor’s help Nicolas escapes and leaves the country while he is hiding between Jewish and non-jewish scourges. The non-jewish scourges are allowed to leave the country and Nicolas leaves Uganda with them. Later, after they have noticed his flight, Amin kills the doctor who has helped Nicolas.
    At the end of the film you can see that the dictator Amin kills about 300.000. people and lives after his fall in 1979 in exile where he has died in 2003.

    The film plays the most of time in Uganda and I think the actors played their roles very well. I guess it’s not so easy to get into this role very good because it’s a serious theme.

    The film shows very clearly how the dictators (in this situation Amin) deal with their power and that they always used violence to keep their force. The people in these countries don’t have a change to do something against these tyrants. The dictators don’t take care about human rights and if somebody says something against their regime they get killed….
    In my opinion that’s not the right way to lead a country and we all on world have to do something against dictators like Amin because that’s no topic where we can look away.
    lt

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  2. How do you like the film? Please rate it (... out of 10). Also, please add your initials.

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  3. i would give that film 8 out of 10
    LT

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  4. I agree with LT in terms of the way the brutality of the dictatorial government is shown in a pure way. It is sometimes disturbing but supports the serious intention of the film. In my opinion the age restriction is totally write chosen in this case, especially because of the maimed bodies.
    I also have to point out the brilliant acting of Forest Whitaker as
    Idi Amin and James McAvoy as Nicholas Garrigan. The twist in Amin´s personality is pointed out really well as well as the Scottish accent of Dr. Garrigan.
    The music matches perfectly with the particular situation. At the beginning it´s a happy, funny and enjoyable reggae sounds, which turn into rock and dramatic tracks at the end.
    All in all The Last King of Scotland is a overall realistic film with a more or less stunning plot, fitting music and a brilliant cast, but it´s not my favorite type of genre.
    I would give The Last King of Scotland a 8.5 out of 10.

    MM

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  5. I agree with MM about the brutality, the perfectly match of music and actors. When you start watching the film you like the dictator, who is presented as good, friendly and generous. This is shown with music, but the main reason you like him is his way, he smiles and is really kind toall people. Later in the film his split personality is shown, like from one to the other moment he kills his health minster and his craziness is revealed.
    In my opinion it's a very suspenseful and fascinating film of a crazy dictator and a scottish doctor who came to Uganda to help the people.
    My Rating (9x10)
    BP
    (114 words)

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