Review of The Last King of Scotland (2006) by Jesse O — 08 Aug 2009

I can't believe I waited almost 3 years to finally see this movie. I've had it on dvd for about 2 years now which makes it even worse that I waited so long, because this movie is absolutely great.

I wouldn't say it's fantastic, but it's damn close. I think the problem with the movie lies solely on the fact that you don't really get to know the kind of man that Idi Amin can be until, maybe, an hour or so in the movie and by then the movie is already halfway over and not that I have a real problem with that since I think this approach worked to a certain degree, because I think that this approach helped sort of humanize Idi Amin a little and it helped you see that, until someone betrayed him, he was a pretty charismatic and charming guy.

This is a movie that's about the strength of its acting. It might not tell the best of stories (it's good but not great), but its great acting sure makes the movie great. Obviously most of the praise HAS to be directed at Forest Whitaker (whom I still consider insanely underrated even IF he won a ton of awards for this movie).

His performance is the kind of performance that people talk about for years and I assumed (without seeing the special features, which confirmed my assumption) that Forest Whitaker WAS Idi Amin both on and off screen.

I think that's where the strength of his performance lies, he really became Idi Amin. He was powerful, he had a commanding screen presence which is something a president should have and Forest Whitaker had that and then some.

Also Forest Whitaker was just absolutely fucking terrifying as Idi Amin, I think he was terrifying because you never knew what he was going to do and (as mentioned in the special features) you never knew when he was joking or being serious if he threatened to kill you.

He was just so paranoid about people betraying him. All in all, Forest Whitaker's performance is a sight to behold. Also the last 20-30 minutes were absolutely fantastic, FANTASTIC I tell you and if the rest of the movie had been like those last 20-30 minutes, this would probably one of the greatest films I'd ever seen.

But alas it's not that way, but it's still a really damn great film and a must see because of Forest Whitaker and his powerhouse performance.