The Last King of Scotland (Possible Spoilers)

oddjob62 · 12 Jan 2007 at 23:43

Anyone seen this?

I thought it was fantastic.

Whitaker steals the show with his portrayal of Amin. He is truly scary at times, and knowing the history makes it even more frightening as you see people celebrating his takeover at the beginning.

Well worth the price of admission imo.

oddjob62 · 13 Jan 2007 at 14:50

smoove said:
Been meaning to go see this, what age is it?

Came out this week, or maybe last week

semi-pro waster · 13 Jan 2007 at 15:06

smoove said:
Been meaning to go see this, what age is it?

Do you mean the age rating or how long has it been out? If it is the former then it appears to be a 15 in the UK (IMDB page here).

I'd quite like to see it myself, apparantly Whitaker got rather too much into the role and refused to stop speaking Swahili and started scaring the locals.

One More Solo · 19 Jan 2007 at 18:14

Just saw this, great film. Pretty stunned by the end.

mks2005 · 20 Jan 2007 at 01:11

Yeah I thought it was fantastic, but at the same time agree that it's a bit lame how they resorted to putting a white face on black suffering, but I suppose it makes it easier to empathise.

oddjob62 · 21 Jan 2007 at 15:16

mks2005 said:
Yeah I thought it was fantastic, but at the same time agree that it's a bit lame how they resorted to putting a white face on black suffering, but I suppose it makes it easier to empathise.

Well the book is very loosely based on Bob Astles, a Brit who was one of Amin's closest advisors. Although from what i've read, he was far less innocent to what was going on compared to the Nicholas Garrigan character.

Scam · 26 Jan 2007 at 21:17

I saw this last night. It was brilliant. Fantastic. One of the best films that i've seen at the cinema for a long while. I didnt know the history too much, but even to me Whitaker was absolutely terrifying. One thing that hit me was that when he is in conversation with Dr. Garrigan it feels like you go through exactly the same emotions as the Doctor. It's so tense when Amin is serious and thinking, you're wondering frightened what he's going to do.. relieved when he laughs, nervous again when he stops. It's a bloody fantastic performance, i'm sure he will win the Oscar.

The rest of the film is great. The soundtrack was a nice surprise too. Not just your usual 'african drums soundtrack' but some good heavy guitars at the right time etc.. and a nice wide range. It all fitted together perfectly.

Great movie, can't praise it enough -- go see!

EDIT: Currently trying to persuade my mum to go see it, but she knows the history (i guess it was around her time) and so is worried about how gory it will be! Says a lot about Amin.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Mar 2007 at 13:58

Just sat throught this terrific film then I decided to look up Dr Garrigan on Google and he's a fictional character. The film was a load of baloney because I really thought I was watching a 'true event'.
There should have been a massive warning at the start - 'Dr Garrigan never existed'.

Scam · 4 Mar 2007 at 14:06

dmpoole said:
Just sat throught this terrific film then I decided to look up Dr Garrigan on Google and he's a fictional character. The film was a load of baloney because I really thought I was watching a 'true event'.
There should have been a massive warning at the start - 'Dr Garrigan never existed'.

AFAIK, Dr. Garrigan is a combination of a lot of different people that did exist.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Mar 2007 at 14:17

Scam said:
AFAIK, Dr. Garrigan is a combination of a lot of different people that did exist.

The film “Last King of Scotland,” is based on the novel by Giles
Foden. The physician, Scotsman Nicholas Garrigan is a fictional
character; however during a 1998 interview, Giles Foden said he used
conversations with Bob Astles, widely perceived to have been Amin's
closest advisor, to construct Garrigan's character.

“The Last King of Scotland is an award-winning first novel by
journalist Giles Foden. A UK film adaptation was released in the U.S.
on 27 September 2006.”

“Its fictional protagonist, Scotsman Nicholas Garrigan, relates how he
came to be the personal physician and confidante of Idi Amin, the
president by coup d'etat of Uganda from 1971-1979.”

“The author evokes the form of a memoir by inserting fictional
newspaper articles, journal entries, and authentic events.”

“During a 1998 interview with the online magazine Boldtype, Foden said
he used conversations with Bob Astles, widely perceived to have been
Amin's closest advisor, to construct Garrigan's character. As a
British soldier who worked his way into Amin's favor, Astles was much
more "proactive than Garrigan", according to Foden, but paid the price
by spending six and a half years in a Ugandan jail after Amin's fall.”

In other words - it didn't happen.

Scam · 4 Mar 2007 at 16:02

Well, the guy did exist though. It's probably about as true-to-life as any other Hollywood flick that sells itself as that anyway. I see no harm done to be honest!

One More Solo · 4 Mar 2007 at 16:08

dmpoole said:
Just sat throught this terrific film then I decided to look up Dr Garrigan on Google and he's a fictional character. The film was a load of baloney because I really thought I was watching a 'true event'.
There should have been a massive warning at the start - 'Dr Garrigan never existed'.

That's because it's a film about Idi Amin and not Dr Garrigan.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Mar 2007 at 16:08

Scam said:
Well, the guy did exist though.

But he didn't.
There was never a Scottish doctor assigned to Amin so everything you saw didn't happen.
The assassination attempt, the adultery, the Hellraiser scene were all made up.

Now if they had made a film about Bob Astles then it would have been different.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Mar 2007 at 16:09

One More Solo said:
That's because it's a film about Idi Amin and not Dr Garrigan.

I beg to differ.
The story is a fictional work by the writer Giles Foden.

One More Solo · 4 Mar 2007 at 16:14

dmpoole said:
I beg to differ.
The story is a fictional work by the writer Giles Foden.

Yeah, it's a fictional work by the writer Giles Foden to explore the character of Amin.

SexyGreyFox · 4 Mar 2007 at 18:23

Perhaps its my fault then.
I thought I was watching a true story film about a Scottish doctor who worked for Amin.

One More Solo · 4 Mar 2007 at 18:45

dmpoole said:
Perhaps its my fault then.
I thought I was watching a true story film about a Scottish doctor who worked for Amin.

I don't know, it's a while since I saw the film now so I don't want to try and sound too certain. I can't remember how the film was presented, but I'll definitely be buying the DVD to watch it again.

Scam · 4 Mar 2007 at 19:54

dmpoole said:
The assassination attempt, the adultery, the Hellraiser scene were all made up.

Can you be sure? As i said, i was under the impression the story was made up from stories from a bunch of real people. I dunno. To me it doesnt really matter. If i went to see a film that's a 'true story' i'd be cynical anyway. You cant trust films to tell you what really happened. I just see this film as a fantastic story, based on true events (of Amin).

SexyGreyFox · 4 Mar 2007 at 20:06

Scam said:
Can you be sure?

When I watch 'true story' films I then have an interest in the people involved and go off and do a bit of research and usually the main characters were real. In this case the main character is totally fictional. In the case of Amin I lived in Nigeria during his rule so heard a lot about him and 3 of my Asian workmates were kicked out by him in the 70's.
On a side note - when their father was asked by the British Govt where they would like to live he asked to be housed in Stoke On Trent because his hero Gordon Banks played football there