The Last King of Scotland: Movie Review

What do you call it when a story about minorities is filtered through the eyes of a protagonist not of that minority? I call it The "Glory" Syndrome or "Glory"-fication (yes, it's spelled that way on purpose), named after two films I really like, "Glory" and "Glory Road", that are nonetheless prime examples of cinema suffering from the previously mentioned affliction. Why is it done? Money, honey. In many cases, Hollywood doesn't think a film about minorities will attract a wide enough audience to make a profit, unless it's made more accessible to people outside of that minority. Is it really necessary to do that? Probably not, but it's a business, so necessary's got nothing to do with it. Well, is it, at least, justifiable to do it? Not on your life, but it's a business, so justifiability's got nothing to do with it. The best example I can give of the hows and whys of The "Glory" Syndrome is Samuel L. Jackson's character's reasoning for choosing a white attorney instead of a black one to defend him in "A Time to Kill", i.e., that he's one of them, and by them he meant the trial's all white jury, and, therefore, can relate to them better than a black attorney could, and then Matthew McConaughey as that attorney telling that all white jury to imagine the crime committed against Samuel L. Jackson's character's daughter had been done to a white girl instead, in order to help them walk a mile in his client's shoes, as it were. Now, imagine that there was a fictional black character added to Eliot Ness's crew in "The Untouchables", and the entire story was filtered through him as the protagonist instead of Kevin Costner as Ness, i.e., how it affected his family and home life, and how the true life events unfolded through his eyes. Do you think any producer in Hollywood would green-light that picture? I mean, sure it compromises the story unnecessarily, but it'd be way more accessible for a black audience. Well, anyway, that brings me to "The Last King of Scotland", a "Glory"-fication, if I've ever seen one.

"The Last King of Scotland" stars James McAvoy ("The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"), Kerry Washington ("Ray"), Simon McBurney ("Friends with Money"), Gillian Anderson ("The X Files"), and Forest Whitaker ("The Shield") as General Idi Amin Dada, in a Golden Globe and Oscar-winning performance. It's "Curiosity killed the cat" meets "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". "The Last King of Scotland" follows the story of a young Scottish doctor (McAvoy) fresh out of medical school, as he travels to Uganda to practice, and winds up in the service, for better and for much, much worse, of infamous dictator Idi Amin. "The Last King of Scotland"'s a fine film, but it suffers greatly from "Glory" Syndrome, as its story about mostly black characters is filtered through the eyes of a white protagonist (in this case, a fictitious Scottish doctor standing in as an amalgam of others who experienced Amin's reign), but that in no way takes away from the tour de force, career-defining performance Whitaker gives. The "Glory"-fication also fails to mar the brilliance with which the story is presented, its construction shielding you from Amin's monstrous acts, and focusing on his charms, until the third act, when it flips that script, so you get to see who he really is, and the truth of the dark days of his reign, and getting to know his charming side first allows you to more directly, in a way, and, therefore, better understand how he duped and manipulated so many, and how conflicted a figure he truly was. The Scottish doctor James McAvoy plays in this is a far cry from his earlier work in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", as the faun, Mr. Tumnus, but despite the fact that I didn't care for the character or his place in this piece, Mr. McAvoy held his own opposite Whitaker, and did the best that could be done with an unnecessary role. Kerry Washington gives another standout performance in yet another thankless wife role (see: "Ray"). She plays one of Amin's wives, and does a great job of playing a black African, and, also, portraying the powerlessness, vulnerability, and yearning of her character. Kerry has a natural strength that she carries herself with (just look into her eyes sometime and you'll see what I'm talking about), which can't be ignored, even while playing a character who's so outwardly submissive, and that inner strength serves her well in playing most roles, even one such as this. It helps her show how her character survived living under Amin's thumb as long as she did, the stress she was under, constantly fearing for her and her children's lives, facing continuous death and violence, and how no matter how many times she got knocked down (metaphorically speaking) she was able to pick herself back up for her sake and, more importantly, her children's. This story would've been better served being filtered through her character's eyes, as opposed to the McAvoy character's. As it stands, "The Last King of Scotland" is great, but would've been even better, if it had focussed less on the court jester, and more on the king, in all his gory glory.