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Propaniac
Nov 28, 2000

SUSHI ROULETTO!
College Slice
Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson

Rather dissonant from its title, The Last King of Scotland is about the rise and reign of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Whitaker), who came to power in the 1970s amidst cheers and adulation before proceeding to kill and/or torture hundreds of thousands of his own people. The story is told through the eyes of his fictional Scottish physician, Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy). Fresh out of med school, Garrigan arrives in Uganda seeking adventure, meets Amin by chance, and becomes the dictator's "most trusted advisor" long before he realizes Amin's brutality.

Like many others in the list of this year's Oscar nominees, there's a lot of really horrific, gory stuff going on in this movie that can be hard to take. Even though we realize from the beginning that McAvoy is being fooled in his initial impression of Amin as a dedicated and benevolent populist, it's still easy to sympathize with his growing sense of fear and angst as his eyes are opened to more and more of Amin's crimes against humanity. Whitaker's performance is an astounding balancing act, but McAvoy (a personal favorite actor of mine since "Inside I'm Dancing," released as "Rory O'Shea Was Here" in the U.S.) holds his own, and in the end it's Garrigan whose narrative is fully told and understood, while Amin's internal story remains fascinatingly, and terrifyingly, alien.

RATING: 4.5

PROS: Spellbindingly brutal
CONS: Spellbindingly brutal

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/

Propaniac fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Feb 11, 2007

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needle exchange
Jul 3, 2004

Sweat. When it's hot, baby.
Although I did enjoy this movie, I found that too much of the screen-time was dedicated to Garrigan, and not enough was spent on Amin. I found Mcavoy's acting unimpressive and occasionally annoying, while Whitaker was amazing, even by his standards.

A good film, I even enjoyed the attempt at 'artsy' cinematography, but not without flaws.

3.5/5

Caligula Braun
May 23, 2004

needle exchange posted:

Although I did enjoy this movie, I found that too much of the screen-time was dedicated to Garrigan, and not enough was spent on Amin. I found Mcavoy's acting unimpressive and occasionally annoying, while Whitaker was amazing, even by his standards.

A good film, I even enjoyed the attempt at 'artsy' cinematography, but not without flaws.

3.5/5

I agree with this post and the many other critics who have voiced similar opinions. So much of the story seemed tacked on - why have a subplot between Amin's wife and Garrigan when there could be one between Amin and his wife or children? Of course they did have a novel to work from. I thought the only thing that could have improved Whitaker's performance would've been more time to portray Amin's descent into madness and more chance for the dictator to interact with his subjects.

And having it end with the doctor sacrificing himself for Garrigan was just too bleak and race-based for the story, I think. I wish the movie had been about Amin and Uganda rather than about the rest of the world's perception of Amin and Uganda. I feel like movies such as Babel have already sucked any genuine sentiments out of that angle.

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