The Last King of Scotland Analysis

 The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy
Won the Oscar for Best Actor.

The film is about the leadership of Idi Amin - the President of Uganda from 1971 - 1979, whose ruthless regime killed about 300,000 people. This film reminded me of the most heartbreaking and horrifying film I've ever seen - 'The Stoning of Soraya M', both of them are set in different worlds, but both the films capture the horrific side of humanity, to show us what we are capable of. Though this film is set in Uganda, the film is written and made from the perspective of a young Scottish doctor who goes there - taking a fish out of the pond structure, like Aamir Khan's PK. The perspective changes sometimes, at a scene where Nicholas is enjoying the show of Amin, Sarah feels weird that he's enjoying the show and we too do. We look at this scene from Sarah's perspective. Sometimes, we have a feeling that Nicholas is entering his own pit by trusting Amin - but the situations are written in a way that his choices don't seem ridiculous to us. The unpredictability of Amin - makes the character terrifying as Nicholas later points out. Sometimes, he's funny. And suddenly, he's a monster. 

The film is shot in a way that it too tells the story, especially Amin - his first shot is an extreme close up of him shaking in excitement, and that shot rightly sums up his character. In the last half an hour, things turn so dark. Then is when we realize the horrors of the situation. The quirky behavior that we laughed at, till then - suddenly take a different turn altogether. Writing and portraying a character like Amin - it's not easy to do it without having an understanding of psychology and psycho-analysis. He's mostly a narcissist - he exaggerates the deeds of the doctor too, only to feel proud of having someone like him beside him. I was initially expecting the film to be a comedy, because of the weirdness of Amin - and I didn't know the real story behind the film - it was horrifying what it lead to.