The Last King of Scotland

"If I could be from anywhere except Uganda, I would be a Scot! I love *everything* about Scotland!... Apart from red hair, which your women may find attractive but which in Africa is quite disgusting." Just one of several verbal gems from Kevin MacDonald's latest film, spoken by Forest Whitaker's character, Idi Amin. The story follows a young Scottish doctor named Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) bored with his planned out family doctor life, who decides to find adventure in the first random country on which his finger lands on a spinning globe. The naive, idealistic, and somewhat immature young Scot arrives in Uganda, surprised to find himself in the middle of a military coup that is supposedly supported by all the "peasants" of the country. After a run-in with the country's new leader, Amin, Garrigan impresses the military general by treating a minor wound as well as making a proud declaration of his Scottish heritage. Garrigan is then "invited" to be Amin's personal physician. Shortly after agreeing, Nicholas realizes his "adventure" has turned into a nightmare, with him becoming an accomplice in an extremely harsh dictatorial regime. However, his attempts to escape are futile. Whitaker stands out as the incredibly passionate, manipulative, and unapologetic dictator who caused the deaths of more than 300,000 people during his reign. McAvoy himself does a fine job communicating the ignorance of members of the world outside of Africa, with their lack of understanding and their lack of caring for the events and the daily life experiences of Africans in several countries of the continent.
This is without doubt, one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen. This is mostly due to two of the most graphic and *ahem* creative physical mutilation scenes I have ever seen in a film. I personally have, I believe, a rather high tolerance for violence, war films being one of my favorite genres to watch. However, at one point, I could not look at the screen for fully three minutes or more. Be aware of that when/if you view this film. These two scenes were not the only aspect of the film that made it disturbing. The entire film (aside from the beginning shots of swimming in a tranquil Scottish loch) is very stressful. Interestingly, this frantic feeling was created not only by the content of the story but also by other elements of the filming. Specifically the music (of course), but also the editing and cinematography. Scenes became shorter and quicker, and shots were made from more extreme angles with a quickened pace and more intense angles, music, and colors. All that being said, even though I left the film physically shaking and somewhat in a state of shock, I thought it was an extremely powerful, amazing, and excellent film. Highly recommended!