The Last King of Scotland (2006)

I can hardly remember specific scenes from movies. It is even harder to cite quotations from films if I don't make the conscious effort to write them down and repeat them to myself. Nonetheless, I never forget how I feel after a great film ends. This month I want to write about The Last King of Scotland, the new movie by the documentary film director Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, 1999).

As the final credits began to appear, my emotions overcame me in a fraction of a second. From being amazed by a fast paced and fascinating tale with unbelievable acting, I suddenly felt stunned realizing what had just happened in front of my eyes. Reflecting on the completion of the story, I was enormously humbled and impressed.

This is a film based on the events of the brutal regime of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) seen from the perspective of his Scottish personal physician (James McAvoy) during the 1970s. This story conveys the seduction and horror of a character as convoluted and charismatic as Amin. He was, all at the same time, loved, admired, feared, and hated by thousands of his own people.

Even though McAvoy's character is fictional (although Amin did have a Scottish doctor), Macdonald showed the breathtaking and terrible things that such person could witness. An estimated 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives through indiscriminate extra judicial killings during the Amin regime. We can easily observe McAvoy's transition from being a young and bold free thinker to a scared, concerned, and in some sense enlightened person at the end of the film. In the face of Whitaker's shocking and visceral characterization of Amin, we feel the real weight that individuals, like McAvoy, face as they fight their own terror. Do not wait for this movie to arrive to your video store or for other people to recommend you to watch it. You can catch it at the AMC Loews Shirlington and at the E Street Cinema.