Film Review: The Last King of Scotland (CW: some descriptions of violence and torture)

1/12/22 (this is when I started the review. I didn’t finish writing it until tonight.)

I just finished The Last King of Scotland, and I am still shaking. I’m really glad my dad warned me to not watch this movie late at night because wow, Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy acted the hell out of their roles in this movie. Normally I go back and watch movies twice, but this movie I definitely need to take some pause. It’s based on the novel by British journalist Giles Foden, which I read when I was in high school. In my world geography class we had our unit on Africa and I wanted to read more literature about Africa so I read books like Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Last King of Scotland was one of the books I read in my spare time. I don’t remember how I felt while reading the book, but reading the book is definitely different from watching the movie. This is a two-hour long film and as someone who is sensitive to violence it’s not for the faint of heart, but it shows how brutal Idi Amin’s regime was. For our unit on Africa there was a list of movies to watch that we could choose on our own, and I don’t think The Last King of Scotland was on that list because it’s a school district and I don’t think they were allowed to recommend R-rated features. I overheard one of my classmates ask my teacher if he could watch The Last King of Scotland for his film choice, and my teacher said sure, but said that it was a pretty brutal film and Idi Amin was a pretty nasty dictator. Normally I read the parents guide before watching R rated films because I don’t enjoy jump scares or excessive gore, and honestly this was one of those films where I’m glad I read the Wikipedia page and the Kids in Mind content because it really does depict how brutal Amin’s regime was. Then again, is there really such a thing as a good dictator? Hitler wasn’t a nice guy, Stalin wasn’t, and Amin also wasn’t.

The movie begins with Nicholas Garrigan, the protagonist, jumping in a lake with his friends and having fun with them in Scotland, where he was born and raised. He earns his degree as a doctor and his mom and dad celebrate with him. Even though they aren’t sure of his career choice, they just want him to be happy. In his bedroom, Nicholas spins a globe on his desk to find where he would go first as a doctor, and the first spin lands him on Canada. He spins again, and it lands on Uganda. We then see him riding in a caravan through the Uganda countryside and communicating with the locals. He arrives in a village where he and another guy are the only main doctors there, and is informed by the other guy that most of the civilians use a witch doctor and not Western medicine. He comes to understand the grueling nature of the work, but finds out that the new president, Idi Amin, is speaking in the village. Nicholas is excited and persuades Sarah to come hear him speak, but she says she is unsure and doesn’t work for Amin. He tells her it’s going to be fun, and so she comes with him. They stand in a crowd and hear Amin speaking. Amin promises that his new government will be one of action and not just words, and that they will build new houses and new schools and other new infrastructure. He also tells him “I am you” and that him and the people “will make this country better.” Suddenly, an official calls Nicholas over to see Amin because he got his hand injured in an accident. While Nicholas is bandaging up Amin’s hand, an injured cow on the side of the road keeps wailing in pain and Nicholas becomes more and more agitated because he thinks the cow is distracting him from concentrating on bandaging Amin’s hand. Nicholas tells Sarah to tell the locals to do something about the cow, but even after Sarah communicates with them, nothing can be done. Finally, Nicholas gets frustrated, and finally yells for someone to put the cow out of its misery, grabbing Amin’s pistol and shooting the cow to death. At first, Amin is angry and expresses his anger that Nicholas grabbed his gun without his permission. He assumes Nicholas is British, but Nicholas clarifies that he is actually Scottish. Amin finds a connection with him and his Scottish heritage and gives Nicholas his army coat in exchange for Nicholas’ Scotland T-shirt. Nicholas finds Sarah one night and asks her out for drinks but she refuses, but he doesn’t take no for an answer and tries to kiss her. She refuses his advances and tells him she is married and doesn’t want to have an affair. He later meets Jonah Wasswa, the Minister of Health in Uganda and also meets Dr. Junju (played brilliantly by David Oyewolo) who was the previous doctor in Mulago’s hospital. He visits Amin after being summoned to see him, and Amin tells Nicholas to be his personal physician. Nicholas is at first skeptical because he is committed to his work in Mgambo, the village he was staying at with Sarah, but Amin jokes with him that it was Sarah who convinced him to stay and to take what she said with a grain of salt. Nicholas, goes with what Amin is telling him and decides to become his personal physician. Amin then invites him to a state dinner and Nicholas meets various people there, including two British officials, one of them being Nigel Stone, and Amin’s three wives, one of whom is Kay, who Nicholas develops a crush on. Amin speaks at the dinner and makes these promises to them that many civilizations have stolen Africa’s cultural traditions and borrowed heavily from African civilization, but that it’s important to remember Africa’s history and he also says that in the past few years they have reclaimed Black power for Africa. Later that evening, Nicholas is summoned to Amin’s chamber because Amin is suffering from health issues. Nicholas props him up and presses a baseball bat against Amin’s stomach and Amin farts loudly, which relieves him of his pain. He then sees a future for Nicholas as his doctor and as someone he can confide in. He tells Nicholas that his father left him as a child and he took a job in the army as a cook, where he was treated horribly, and now he is the president of Uganda thanks to the British. Later on, Nigel approaches Nicholas and tells him to stay in touch, and when Nicholas doesn’t understand, Nigel explains that people are starting to speculate about Nicholas’ unusually personal relationship with Amin and that Amin doesn’t show that much attention to someone like that. He tells him to let him know if anything shady goes on, and Nicholas poo-poos what he says, thinking Nigel is just trying to discredit Nicholas. Nicholas is tasked with taking Amin’s place at a meeting with foreign officials, and he strides in thinking he knows what to do, but even the officials are uneasy with the fact that Amin had to leave at the last minute and is just putting some random stranger from another country in his place. Amin also condescends to Jonah but praises Nicholas. Nicholas finds Kay’s son McKenzie has epilepsy. Nicholas gives him a vaccination for his epilepsy and he relaxes. Kay places her trust in Nicholas for saving her son, and his attraction for her deepens. Amin further continues to praise Nicholas, even getting him a nice new car. While driving Amin in his new car, Nicholas brings up the way Amin treats his son. According to Kay, Amin looks down on her and won’t talk to her because he sees McKenzie’s epilepsy as a defect. Nicholas tells Amin that he doesn’t like how Amin treats McKenzie, and Amin retorts that he needs to mind his business, and then tells him with a fake smile how he loves Nicholas’s honesty.

However, as the film goes on we find out that Nicholas ultimately pays the price for being honest with Amin about how he treats people. However, it’s clearly shown how Amin uses fear, gaslighting and intimidation to keep Nicholas in his power. At the pool Nicholas sees Kay and talks to her, but Kay, knowing that Amin will find out about her and Nicholas’s chemistry, keeps her distance from him. Nicholas doesn’t take a hint and maintains his love for Kay. Stone approaches him and tells him about several news reports that are coming out about Ugandan civilians that have gone missing during Amin’s presidency, and once again warns Nicholas to proceed with caution and that he is deluded into thinking Amin is a good person when he’s the one behind the disappearances. Early on, Amin tells Nicholas to be honest with him and he tells him that at a party the previous night, Dr. Wasswa was talking to a white European gentleman and looking at Nicholas out of the corner of his eye while talking to him. Nicholas didn’t like that he was being talked about and asks Amin to have “just a talk” with Dr. Wasswa, and that’s why Dr. Wasswa has disappeared. Stone tells Nicholas to be careful around Amin, but Nicholas blows up at him and tells him that “this is Africa” and that “you meet violence with violence” and that Amin knows what he’s doing and that he doesn’t see why no one trusts Amin is a good guy.

But as the film goes on, Nicholas realizes that maybe all those people warning him about Amin were right after all, because one day as they are driving in his car, they get in a car crash with a coup that is plotting to kill Amin and swerve past the coup shooting bullets at some officials inside a car. He then gets out of the car and shouts at Nicholas and accuses him of putting Amin’s life in jeopardy like that. Amin then takes Nicholas to a shed where four or five men are being brutally tortured with weapons, and Amin accuses them of trying to harm him, reminding them that no one disrespects him and that he is the president who everyone looks up to. This is a harrowing thing for Nicholas to encounter and he thinks “Um, maybe I should get the hell out of here” but it’s too late because he’s already trapped in Amin’s mind games with him. Garrigan once again reiterrates his oath of confidentiality as a doctor, but Amin accuses him of being just like the other white European people who came to Africa and colonized it for their own gain and took away from its communities. Nicholas pleads for Amin to let him fly home to Scotland since that is his home, but Amin tells him he can’t go home because Uganda is his home and that Nicholas is just like “his own son.” At a Western cowboy-themed party that Amin has with go-go dancers, Nicholas drinks and smokes himself to oblivion and recollects the traumas he has witnessed in the short time he has been Amin’s personal doctor. He runs into Kay and breaks down in tears because he wants to leave Uganda and Amin won’t let him, and she consoles him. They hide out and sleep together, and when they wake up Kay tells him he needs to find a way, any way, to get out of Uganda. Nicholas promises but again, is stuck and not sure what to do or even how bad Amin’s regime is going to get. He comes in later to his apartment only to find it completely destroyed and with his papers strewn all over the place, and picks up his Uganda passport, realizing that Amin’s officials took his Scotland passport so that he couldn’t go home. Stone meets with Nicholas in his apartment, and when Nicholas finally tells him he wants to get out of Uganda for good, Stone tells him Amin calls Nicholas his “white monkey” and has complete control over Nicholas’s whereabouts. Stone shows Nicholas photographs of civilians who have been executed under Amin’s regime, and one of the civilians we see being tortured is Dr. Wasswa. Nicholas remembers telling Amin to have a talk with him, and feels guilty for doing so. It’s at that moment he realizes that he really does need to get out. Nicholas tells Stone that he can get him out but Stone tells him “fuck your rights” and tells him to go to Amin for that. Shortly after, Amin announces on television his plan to force everyone who is of Asian descent out of Uganda in 90 days. Nicholas goes to Amin and tells him to not do that because if he expels the Asian community in Uganda, it would hurt the economy. Amin accuses him of being loyal to the Asian tailor he went to early on in the film for his suit, and Nicholas leaves and finds a bus with Asian immigrants fleeing the city, and Sarah is on the bus.

Nicholas also finds out from Kay that he got her pregnant after they had sex, and she is worried for her life at this point about what Amin will do to her when he finds out. Nicholas promises her that they will get her an abortion at the hospital, but Kay tells him it’s too dangerous. Nicholas promises her he will see what the hospital can do, but then Dr. Junju tells him he is out of his mind because Amin will find out. Nicholas ends up being too late to help Kay because Amin has him attend a press conference that Amin is speaking at. When he finally arrives at Kay’s house, he is informed by the people there that Amin’s officials took her to the hospital. He arrives at the hospital and passes by several crying civilians in a darkened hallway, and finds Kay’s dismembered body lying on the morgue table, retching in shock. Amin goes to the Entebbe airport and finds a group of hostages held there and the doctors and Nicholas try to help them, but then Amin finds out about Nicholas’ plan to poison Amin and he ends up taking Nicholas to a private spot and angrily tells Nicholas he has betrayed him and that he will get punished severely. He asks him if there is one thing that he has done that is good and that he thought he could just come to Uganda like the white dude that he is and treat the people of Uganda like they are fun and games, but that “this is not a game.” Amin brutally tortures Nicholas by having his guards pierce his chest with meat hooks and hang him by the ceiling (I didn’t watch the scene because I knew it was going to be graphic, but I could hear Nicholas’s cries of pain and that was enough for me to know that what Amin did was brutal. The scene is also pretty long.) While Amin goes out and tells the hostages he is letting everyone fly back to safety, Dr. Junju finds Nicholas unconscious and tells him he is going to let him go in secret. While Nicholas flies with the Israeli citizens back home, one of the authorities of Amin accosts Dr. Junju of Nicholas’s whereabouts and when Dr. Junju says he doesn’t know, the authority shoots and kills him while the hostages watch in horror. On the plane Nicholas remembers in sadness the times he shared with the people of Uganda and the horrors he faced at the hands of Amin’s regime. In the epilogue, it says that forty-eight hours later, Israeli forces stormed Entebbe and liberated all but one of the hostages and that international opinion turned against Amin immediately. It continues that when Amin was ousted in 1979 that all of the Ugandan civilians celebrated, and that 300,000 people in total were killed under his regime. Amin, while in exile in Saudi Arabia, died on August 16, 2003.

Honestly, this was probably Forest Whitaker’s scariest role. I have seen him in The Butler, The Great Debaters, Respect, Arrival (I also just found out he was one of the Equisapiens in Sorry to Bother You), Black Panther, but this role he was in as Idi Amin was just…terrifyingly convincing. And it’s all in his body language. The character he embodies was a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde figure. One minute Amin is laughing with Nicholas and the next moment he is screaming at him or threatening him. Amin gave Nicholas this illusion of safety, of security, that he was going to improve the lives of Ugandans everywhere, but it ended up being a fantasy. Amin knew that Nicholas was just a white guy coming in with a savior mentality, and I think that’s what the movie reminded me, too: to not forget the brutal legacy of European imperialism in Africa. In my world geography and history classes we read some pretty harrowing accounts about European imperialism in African countries, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get past the first few pages of King Leopold’s Ghost without getting nightmares. I picked it up because we were reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and I don’t think I finished it because I had read a lot about King Leopold’s rule on the Internet and saw brutal footage of his regime in the Congo and even just looking at the cover of King Leopold’s Ghost gave me nightmares, like I couldn’t even keep it by my nightstand (thankfully, during the 2020 global reckoning with systemic racism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, people in Belgium called to take down King Leopold II’s statue.) But I don’t want to shield my eyes from this history, because it really is important to study and learn from it. The history of European imperialism is one of gross human rights abuses, and Amin’s presidency was also one of gross human rights abuses. Before reading The Last King of Scotland and seeing the movie, I knew very little about Idi Amin, and of course I still have a lot to learn about his presidency and his life, especially because although The Last King of Scotland is based on Idi Amin’s regime, it’s still a work of fiction and it’s told from a certain perspective, that of a white guy who didn’t grow up in Uganda and is setting foot in the country for the first time. Still though, the objective fact remains that many people were killed under Amin’s regime and the film portrays this in the realest way possible.

Overall, I really loved this film mainly because of the powerful acting that James McAvoy and Forest Whitaker brought to the roles of Nicholas Garrigan and Idi Amin. And the film score was out of this world! I think not just the acting gave the film its intense suspense but also the score, which blends African music traditions with European music traditions. It reminded me of the music we studied in a class I took in college about African Popular Music, where we studied the music of people such as Fela Kuti, who was from Nigeria, E.T. Mensah and the Tempos, who were from Ghana, and K’naan, a Canadian musician originally from Somalia. While I enjoyed studying about Western classical music and I enjoy playing it, it was great to know more about music traditions that I don’t typically listen to.

Honestly, when the movie first came out in 2006 I couldn’t see it since I was way too young to watch R-rated films. But I remembered Forest Whitaker winning Best Actor at the Academy Awards for it, and after seeing the movie sixteen years after its release, and being so drawn in by Whitaker’s acting chops, I can honestly see why he won that Oscar. Because holy shit, the man can fucking act.

Here is the trailer for the film:

The Last King of Scotland. 2006. Rated R for some strong violence and gruesome images, sexual content and language.