Movie Review: The Last King of Scotland Blu-ray

Taking history to fiction The Last King of Scotland uses the real life dictator Idi Amin of Uganda and adds a fictional advisor in the form of Doctor Nicolas Garrigan for an overall well made movie.

Film making 21/25
Video 20/25
Audio 20/25
Bonus Features 16/25
Total 77/100

The Last King of Scotland puts the fictional Doctor Garrigan in the center of troubled Uganda during Dictator Idi Amin's take over to power and eventual fall from grace and head of state. Idi Amin is played by Forest Whitaker in an Oscar winning performance as the dictator who eventually lost power over the country he ruled.

James McAvoy plays the fictional doctor who following a twist of fate while Idi AMin was visiting a village the doctor was volunteering his services at joins the dictators' service. Right after Idi Amin leaves the village he is involved in a small traffic accident with a cow and injures his hand so his soldiers find the doctor who attends to his wound.

While tending to the wound the cow is bellowing in pain and the doctor after hearing this for minutes on end grabs a pistol from off a vehicle and shoots the cow dead. Idi AMin is so taken with the doctors character and decisive action that he invites the doctor to the capitol for the festivities of his recent coup.

Idi Amin convinces the doctor to stay on as his personal physician and in the end uses the doctor as an advisor and sometimes scapegoat. After a few years of being a close friend and partial advisor to the new president it soon dawns on Doctor Garrigan that Idi Amin is actually a dictator.

The story of The Last King of Scotland uses the doctor as an inside look and partial fall guy for some events that really do occur in history. In the film the doctor has an affair with one of Idi Amin's wives and winds up getting her pregnant which leads the dictator to kill her and have her body dismembered.

The end of the film has the incident of a hostage airliner flying to Uganda seeking refuge in the country as the end of the doctor's life in Uganda. When Idi Amin has his wife killed and before he can confront the doctor the hostage incident occurs and the presidents group rushes the doctor to the airport to attend to the situation.

While there Idi Amin gives the non Israeli passengers of the flight their freedom and his men hang the doctor by hooks through his skin in the airport duty free shop. While the men take a break from torturing the doctor his friend and fellow doctor comes in and sneaks the doctor out of the airport in the group of freed hostages to tell others of the horrors that Idi Amin has committed.

The doctor who freed Doctor Garrigan is killed in the airport for helping free the doctor and sneaking him out of the country for an end to the film. The fictional story adds quite a lot to the real life history and shows some of the events that are chronicled in history in an up close and personal way.

The film does a great job of showing the possible real life situation behind the scenes of a dictator and his eventual fall from power. It also shows the possible way Idi Amin became the dictator and his mental degeneration and paranoia from the perspective of an outsider thrown into the middle of his inner circle.

The Last King of Scotland is a great film and well worth watching at least once, a definite rental but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. While this is definitely a worthwhile movie it may not be a must have movie for everyone's film collection.

The Last King of Scotland has some very good video and audio with great color and a wonderful transfer to Blu-ray for a nice looking movie with many scenes that are near lifelike. The scenes in backcountry Uganda which are filmed mostly in Uganda look great and have that feel that any director and producer would be looking for.

While the film has a grainy look this is in exact context to the subject of the movie and its story for a well made film that gives a very documentary feel. The quality is in direct proportion to the nature of the film and lends a lot to the realistic feel and partial historical accuracy.

Audio is also very good with well done 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound and good rear use but not anything over the top or highly used for larger sounds. The film is more of a drama and less of an action movie so surround is less used but still nice for many of the crowd scenes and more.

The audio is crisp and clear for voice and the many crowd scenes really give you the feel of an enveloping sound field with plenty of smaller surround noises. Things like natural noises, birds and animals, cars and the more noticeable crowd scenes all use the rear speakers well.

The bonus content is a bit on the low side with a half hour making of and documentary mix and audio commentary by director Kevin MacDonald with a few other features. The bonus material is alright but you would expect more from a well documented and internationally known dictator that they could add some real life extras to enhance the bonus content of the Blu-ray release.

The Last King of Scotland is a great movie and even the Oscar worthy acting of Forest Whitaker really shows the movie is worthwhile. The film however may not be a collection mainstay as the subject matter and a few scenes may make it questionable for a full time purchase and ownership.