How much Idi Amin is in the consciousness of those who were not alive during his brutal leadership of Uganda is an interesting question.  He is one of the tyrants of the 1970s who did not die until the 1990s, in exile in Saudi Arabia.  He came up through the army, serving in Kenya during the Mau Mau era and then succeeded President Obote who was ousted for corruption in the early 1970s in a military coup.  Amin was popular for a time but became almost a caricature of those local generals who get into power which goes to their head and they assume a luxury lifestyle (usually American) while brutalising the population and eliminating their enemies.  Amin’s toll was hundreds of thousands.

And the Scottish thing?  Amin admired the Scots and their attitudes towards the English – and had two sons to whom he gave Scottish names.  He also liked to wear a kilt.

The Last King of Scotland was written by Jeremy Brock (Mrs Brown, Charlotte Gray) and the award-winning Peter Morgan (The Deal, The Queen, Longford, Frost Nixon) and directed by Kevin Macdonald, better known as a documentary maker with One Day in September (Oscar, Best Documentary, 2000) and Touching the Void.  Filming in Uganda and re-creating the 70s, he uses his documentarist’s eye to capture the mood of the era.

One of the objections made to a number of films made by western directors on Africa (Hotel Rwanda, Shooting Dogs, Cry Freedom) is that they focus on a white character which they feel gives something of an unbalanced view of events.  Maybe.  This is a bit like Alain Delon’s outburst at Sophia Coppola, that only the French could make a film on Marie Antoinette.  Obviously, an inside view brings its own heritage, history and insights.  But an outsider, especially one who is trying to communicate to the outsider audience, will bring different insights worth considering.

The screenwriters here have invented a Scots character with whom the audience enters Uganda and encounters Amin.  He is a young Scottish doctor recently graduated who escapes his dominating father by going to Africa.  He has some good intentions but is basically out for a good time and some adventure, not the most noble of medicos to go to Africa.  While working on a medical mission (with Gillian Armstrong as the wife of a doctor), he is caught up in the enthusiasm for Amin, accidentally has to treat him as a doctor, makes an impression and is summoned to Kampala, along with enticements for a very comfortable like plus perks and a position of influence with Amin.

He is played by the up-and-coming James McAvoy (Narnia, Starter for Ten),

Interestingly, we don’t see a lot of Amin’s abuses on screen, though enough to horrify and disgust – a bit like the doctor who tends to avoid seeing and knowing about what is unpleasant.  He does not have a strong moral sense and has an affair with one of Amin’s wives.  Gradually, he becomes suspicious, then disillusioned, feeling some blood guilt for reporting gossip to Amin which leads to executions.  Finally, he is offered a chance to redeem himself on the occasion of the hijacking of the plane landing at Entebbe in 1976.  But, it is emotionally and morally disconcerting to be asked to side, even partially, with a lopsided hero.

Familiar outline in many ways.  The power of the film is in the audience identifying with the weak Scot, discovering more and more of the truth about Amin as well as experiencing the commanding presence of Whitaker.  There are glimpses of the real Amin in the final credits.

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