the last king of scotland

the fear that runs all through the film hinges on the unpredictability of its main character- the capricious, alternatively charming, charismatic, obnoxious, brutal, savage dictator of uganda in the 1970s idi amin. when seen through the first adoring and then gradually more and more frightened eyes of his young scottish doctor his every mood swing can mean a ridiculous reward or a violent death.

the perpetual tension that runs all the way through the film is terrifying. it is only released when the doctors deceit is revealed to the dictator. strangely, when we are face to face with the evidence of the genocide or the torture it scares us less than the simmering threat of it that lurks perpetually below the surface in the film.

it is a relief that the film is positioned more as a political thriller than a sentimental saga, because i cannot imagine what soft focus starving children some other hollywood director would have brought to the film. instead, it is gritty, hard edged and disturbing without being sensationalistic in filling the screen with the gore of amin’s reign. i guess the fact that we were asked to inhabit the persona of the white doctor who lived in the fantasy perpetuated in the city while the countryside burned with the bodies of amins detractors helped.

forest whitaker as idi amin is brilliant. he is able to make amin human in his paranoia and affections and his almost childlike need to be loved.