Review of The Last King of Scotland (2006) by Ty P — 07 Feb 2012

Only hearing biased and quite possibly untruthful reports about tyranical dictator Idi Amin, I've was keen to see this film once I heard of it. Forest Whitakers golden globe and oscar only secured that position.

TLKOS is a powerful and intense film, but not nearly as intense as I would have thought it was given the circumstances of Amin's abuse of power( it quite possibly would've been more powerful had visual imagery of his rampmant brutality been shown more thorughout the film). But through it all, his story is another of good deeds turned bad. Not that I'm siding with a person who murders hundreds of thousands of people all in the name of help for the nation; But simply the old story first displayed in Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies, as "Eventual corruption of power", and therefore doesn't reign points for originality.

Forest Whitaker is fabulous as Amin and quite deserved his awards(though possibly only one of them, Di Caprio should have at least shared one). His strength and power are unmatched, considering his role in the film displayed through third person(James Macavoy is really the main actor in the film). But with an eccentric, interesting, one of kind character like Idi Amin, it's not hard to capture points for acting ability(Think Geoffrey Rush in Shine and Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot), but when you do nail the character it proves you acting worth.

But TLKOS is flawed outside of Whitakers performance. Like I said the story is an old story, if only told differently by offsetting the real story against another character, who experienced it( this scenario is secured when the end credits detail what happened to Amin, not Doctor Garrigan).

And just something to note, the grainy unsharp cinematography that the film is shot in(possibly to create a better essence of the 70s), does not do well the eyes and doesn't make for easy viewing. Effective effect, but this is the future now. But have a look.