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Last King of Scotland, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures


8.0

based on 36 reviews
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based on 73 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some strong violence and gruesome images, sexual content and language

Starring Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, Gillian Anderson, David Oyelowo, and Adam Kotz

In an incredible twist of fate, a Scottish doctor (McAvoy) on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin (Whitaker). Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery - and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Jeremy Brock Giles Foden (novel) Peter Morgan Joe Penhall
DIRECTED BY:	Kevin Macdonald
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 17, 2007 Theatrical: September 27, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	121 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Of course no Western director can make a movie about Africa without being accused of colonialism himself, and some critics have faulted The Last King of Scotland for focusing on its white hero as black corpses pile up around him. But although the movie takes place on an international political stage, it's still a drama of individual allegiance.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Jumping off from the brilliant novel by Giles Foden and changing a key character entirely, it dramatizes and wrings humor from the way a white Western renegade can view a self-made Third World despot like Amin as a superman blowing fresh air into a fetid atmosphere.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The film is phenomenally well directed by Kevin Macdonald and edited by Justine Wright to bring out every bit of scary volatility in the most casual interactions.

Newsweek David Ansen

Forest Whitaker, uncorking the power that he usually holds in check, gives a chilling, bravura performance as Ugandan tyrant Idi Amin, whose bloody regime slaughtered more than 300,000 people. This intelligent, sometimes gruesome thriller is based on a novel by Giles Foden.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The Last King of Scotland is a parable shocking in its truth, jolting in its lack of sentimentality, Shakespearean in its vision of the doctor's catastrophic flaw.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Drawing on a documentary visual style he deftly employed in "One Day in September" and "Touching the Void," director Kevin Macdonald uses McAvoy's boyishness to treat Garrigan's apolitical foolishness as yet another damn mess in one African country's hell.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Whitaker is terrifying in a way that we recognize not from old movies but from life.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie is an extraordinary personal adventure that views everything through the eyes of its hero as it carries him from one apocalyptic situation to another.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Macdonald has a fetching feel for the continent, and the movie has a powerful sense of what Africa looks and feels like; you can almost smell it.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The film as a whole measures up to Forest Whitaker's performance...one of the great performances of modern movie history.

Film Threat Stina Chyn

In addition to a very engaging script, Forrest Whitaker and James McAvoy amazingly express the tension and the camaraderie shared by Amin and Garrigan.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is a wonderful, horrifying performance: Whitaker doesn't take the easy way out by playing Amin as a killer clown, a treacherous buffoon.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Captures the energy and exuberance of a young nation in the throes of optimism and works it into a foreboding frenzy.

Empire Liz Beardsworth

Both an enthralling examination of a horrific time and an adrenalin-filled thriller full of wry humour.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Director Kevin Macdonald, an accomplished maker of documentaries making his feature-film debut, gives The Last King of Scotland the pace and crackle of a thriller, albeit a thriller with substance.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Director Kevin Macdonald has fashioned a film that is at times nearly as harrowing as his previous endeavor, "Touching the Void."

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Whitaker's Amin is the kind of raging lunatic that only an actor who has made a specialty of quiet caginess could pull off so convincingly. It's great, and scary, to see Whitaker turn it up to 11 for once.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The supporting cast is uniformly strong, with Simon McBurney standing out as an oily representative of the British foreign service.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Forest Whitaker is astoundingly multifaceted and convincing as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. In the performance of his career, he fully inhabits the part of the barbaric and charismatic ruler.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Great as Whitaker is in this juicy slab of Oscar bait, Macdonald's movie doesn't have much to offer beyond a pair of stunning performances, propulsive editing, fantastic scenery and the heartbeat rhythms of African music.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

For Whitaker's performance alone, Last King is a substantial piece of work. Otherwise, the film is estimable but not quite great.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The story is fanciful, with grotesquely improbable twists involving the fictional Garrigan (James McAvoy) and one of the dictator's three wives (Kerry Washington). But as Amin, Forest Whitaker's command of the screen is so thorough, so frightening, so ripe with malice that you won't move in your seat for fear of catching his eye.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Whitaker is on fire, and as long as he's onscreen, King keeps you riveted.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The director is Kevin Macdonald, a documentary filmmaker making his fiction film feature debut. (He won an Oscar for his Munich Olympics hostage chronicle, "One Day in September.")

Slate Dana Stevens

The Last King of Scotland never rises to the standard set by Forest Whitaker's fearless (and fearsome) performance as Idi Amin.

The Hollywood Reporter Howie Movshovitz

An imaginative and original picture turns conventional as it ends.

Variety Todd McCarthy

In the end, The Last King of Scotland is much better when it plays it cool and amusing than when it tries to ramp up outrage and indignation.

The New Yorker David Denby

Whitaker, in the performance of a lifetime, makes him (Idi Amin) a charismatic madman.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

An adequate thriller redeemed by Forest Whitaker's sensational turn as Idi Amin.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Furiously paced, with excellent performances by Forest Whitaker as Amin and James McAvoy as the foolish Scotsman who becomes the leader's personal physician, the film has texture, if not depth and enough intelligence to almost persuade you that it actually has something of note to say.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

The Last King Of Scotland makes a stronger case when it's demonstrating how opulent power-lunches corrupt absolutely.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

Unfortunately, despite a committed and lively performance, McAvoy's Scottish doctor is fictional, an amalgam of Amin's "white monkeys."

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

This veteran actor is always great, and it's just a little bit sad that he has to play a big, scary demon for us to sit up and finally take notice.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Besides its title, the movie has retained the book's outline...But the film throws away the point of the book completely.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The Last King of Scotland joins the ranks of nightmarish innocents-abroad movies, from "Midnight Express" to "Hostel," where the disillusioned hero fights to return to civility.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 73 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Nick A. gave it an8:
Forest Whitaker inhabits the heartless monster of Idi Amin, Uganda’s President from 1971-1979, with ease as he leads a cast of stellar performances in this true story of corruption in a country so hopeless its residents would follow any leader who rose to the opportunity. Subsequently, in 1971, Idi Amin was elected the Ugandan President for some years to come. In the eight years following his initiation, his unflinching thirst for power would lead to deaths of more than 300,000 Hindus, Christians, and Lango tribes. The number of deaths by persecution that Uganda witnessed during Amin’s tenure as President stands as one of the highest death tolls one nation’s leader has been responsible for since Adolf Hitler. 'The Last King of Scotland' recounts the terrifying story of Amin’s rule through the view-point of a young Scottish doctor, who travels to Uganda to aid the fight against disease that the population was succumbing to. James McAvoy, in his most prominent role to date, is fit for the role at hand. We watch his character, Nick Garrigan, as he is adopted into Amin’s regime as the President’s personal physician. As young Nick realizes the corruption and willful malevolence of the leader, he begins to scheme an overthrow of the reigning dictator; to save his life and the lives of thousands of Ugandans. Kevin McDonald goes about his depiction of the events that took place in a fashion reminiscent of 2004’s 'Downfall,' which told the story of the last days of Hitler’s reign through the eyes of his private secretary. Shot with precision and detailed with informative dialogue, viewers have the opportunity to dwell in the mind of one of the world’s most vicious fiends.

Greg E. gave it a10:
This movie blew me away. This a true story, and it really struck a chord with me how this one no-name doctor becomes involved in such an involved scene 10/10 This movie is one of the best of all time

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Hey! This was a good movie whether it was based on fact or not, real characters or not. Jeez, relax everyone. All this white people, black people, what about his rise to power stuff. It was just a really good movie.

Sohail A. gave it a7:
The acting was awesome, but the movie could have used a little bit more direction/meaning as a whole.

Pat C. gave it a9:
This is an unvarnished study of a naive empty vessel of a young man without direction. Fresh out of medical school, he knows only that he doesn't want to live under his father's direction. As a result he finds himself living under the direction of the catastrophically insane. The movie stumbles tentatively from scene to scene, but Whitaker sells it anyway. In the end it will stay with you. Quite an achievement really.

John B. gave it an8:
It's the realistic and totally believable performance of Forest Whitaker that pulls this movie through. The Last King of Scotland brings us to Idi Amin's world and the life changing story of a man that finds his original intentions turned upside down through unforeseen circumstances. This movie is as much fiction as it is a movie that brings awareness to an important time in history.

Mark G. gave it a9:
Forest and McAvoy both give stellar preformances in a brutal and real piece of film. True the film was subjected to some criticism, with all the praise focusing on Forest's brilliant interpretation of the infamous dictator but why did it take until now to recognise his brilliance?? People jumping on the bandwagon this year after ignoring Forest's splendid acting in Bird and Ghost Dog should try in future to recognise an actor's potential long before the critics stir up a whirlwind about a recent performance. The film contains some brilliantly worked scenes and the way the angles constantly vary allow us to look at the life of Idi Amin as both an insider and an outside observer. McAvoy does a fine job of portraying a difficult character but it is Whitaker's hypnotic screen presence as he shows us his ferocity and helplessness simultaneously, that makes the film masterful.

Last King of Scotland, The Fox Searchlight Pictures

Last King of Scotland, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures