lucifers angel
02-18-08, 06:19 PM
Who else has seen this film? i have just watched it with my husband and my 14yr old daughter, and we thought it was excellent, blood thirsty but good.
It could've been made a lot worse then what it was:
here is a bit about the film:
Young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) heads to Uganda seeking adventure and escape from the bourgeois life of his father. He works in a small clinic on the countryside with Dr. Merrit (Adam Kontz) and his wife, Sarah (Gillian Anderson). At the time of Garrigan's arrival, General Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) leads a coup against current president Milton Obote. He is enamored by Amin's rhetoric when Amin comes to the village where they are working, which held a rally for him. Garrigan and Amin meet on a chance encounter on a country road, where he fixes Amin's hand. Amin likes Garrigan because he is Scottish, and offers Garrigan the job of becoming his personal physician, and, after some hesitation, Garrigan accepts.
Amin welcomes Garrigan into his personal confidences quickly, asking for advice on state matters and gifting Garrigan with a comfortable living and a new Mercedes. Now entrenched in a lifestyle far removed from the impoverished countryside he first came to Uganda to serve, Garrigan's image of Amin turns to idolization. He detests the local English officials for their imperialistic bigotry and continues to help Amin on state projects and family matters while working in the main Kampala state-funded hospital. Slowly, however, Garrigan cannot reconcile this positivity with the increasingly brutal and repressive images of violence and oppression enveloping the country around him; at the same time, the audience comes to realize that he is no longer an "innocent bystander," since his participation in Amin's household is itself support of Amin's repressive policies. At one crucial moment in the film, Garrigan goes to Amin to ask him to "talk to" his other closest Ugandan advisor because he suspects him of treason; Amin immediately has the advisor killed. When this crime is revealed to Garrigan by a British journalist, Garrigan first makes excuses for Amin's government, but then, unable to sustain his self-delusion, confronts Amin. The scene is telling: Amin says to him, essentially, "You knew exactly what was going to happen when you asked me to 'talk' to the minister—don't act as if you are completely innocent of this." As a result of this confrontation and this moment of self-awareness, Garrigan decides he must leave Uganda. At first, he asks Amin to let him leave, but when he returns home one day to find his house ransacked, his passport gone, and a new Ugandan passport in an envelope addressed to him, he realizes the dictator will not let him go willingly. He turns for help to the English officials that he has been completely contemptuous of, and they return the favor: why would they help a man who has allowed Amin to wreak such havoc on Uganda and the world? However, they will allow him to leave on one condition: he must assassinate Amin.
Garrigan, meanwhile, has an affair with one of Amin's wives, Kay (Kerry Washington), and impregnates her. While seeking an abortion in a nearby village, Kay is caught, executed, and mutilated by Amin's forces. Garrigan witnesses her violation knowing that he has caused her death: his actions (and his initial refusal to provide the abortion himself) left her no choice in her course of action. As a result of this trauma, Garrigan decides to assassinate Amin by poisoning him rather than giving him the pills for his headache.
Soon after, a hijacked Air France aircraft lands at Entebbe International Airport seeking asylum for the Palestinian hijackers on board. Amin, Garrigan, and other state officials rush to the airport to handle the situation. Here, Garrigan's plot to kill Amin is discovered and Amin reveals he is aware of the affair between Kay and Garrigan. While Amin leans close to Garrigan to tell him how he will die, Garrigan, with his characteristic boldness in addressing Amin, denounces him: "You're a child, that's what makes you so fucking scary."
Amin orders Garrigan beaten and tortured, but Garrigan is eventually rescued by a Ugandan colleague, Dr. Junju (David Oyelowo), who offers his help (and ultimately his life) in exchange for Garrigan's promise to return to Europe and tell the world the truth about Idi Amin. Again, the ambivalence of Garrigan's moral position is invoked: Garrigan asks Junju, "Why are you doing this [for me]?" and Junju replies, "Frankly, I don't know—you deserve to die." But Junju goes on to explain that Garrigan is in a position to go back home and tell the rest of the world about Amin's atrocities. "They will believe you," he says. "You are a white man."
Garrigan sneaks aboard a plane with a group of released hostages, leaving behind a furious, heartbroken Amin.
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http://dtracorp.com/print/direct/type/n/it/f/filename/406px-The_Last_King_of_Scotland-1171797657.jpg
It could've been made a lot worse then what it was:
here is a bit about the film:
Young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) heads to Uganda seeking adventure and escape from the bourgeois life of his father. He works in a small clinic on the countryside with Dr. Merrit (Adam Kontz) and his wife, Sarah (Gillian Anderson). At the time of Garrigan's arrival, General Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) leads a coup against current president Milton Obote. He is enamored by Amin's rhetoric when Amin comes to the village where they are working, which held a rally for him. Garrigan and Amin meet on a chance encounter on a country road, where he fixes Amin's hand. Amin likes Garrigan because he is Scottish, and offers Garrigan the job of becoming his personal physician, and, after some hesitation, Garrigan accepts.
Amin welcomes Garrigan into his personal confidences quickly, asking for advice on state matters and gifting Garrigan with a comfortable living and a new Mercedes. Now entrenched in a lifestyle far removed from the impoverished countryside he first came to Uganda to serve, Garrigan's image of Amin turns to idolization. He detests the local English officials for their imperialistic bigotry and continues to help Amin on state projects and family matters while working in the main Kampala state-funded hospital. Slowly, however, Garrigan cannot reconcile this positivity with the increasingly brutal and repressive images of violence and oppression enveloping the country around him; at the same time, the audience comes to realize that he is no longer an "innocent bystander," since his participation in Amin's household is itself support of Amin's repressive policies. At one crucial moment in the film, Garrigan goes to Amin to ask him to "talk to" his other closest Ugandan advisor because he suspects him of treason; Amin immediately has the advisor killed. When this crime is revealed to Garrigan by a British journalist, Garrigan first makes excuses for Amin's government, but then, unable to sustain his self-delusion, confronts Amin. The scene is telling: Amin says to him, essentially, "You knew exactly what was going to happen when you asked me to 'talk' to the minister—don't act as if you are completely innocent of this." As a result of this confrontation and this moment of self-awareness, Garrigan decides he must leave Uganda. At first, he asks Amin to let him leave, but when he returns home one day to find his house ransacked, his passport gone, and a new Ugandan passport in an envelope addressed to him, he realizes the dictator will not let him go willingly. He turns for help to the English officials that he has been completely contemptuous of, and they return the favor: why would they help a man who has allowed Amin to wreak such havoc on Uganda and the world? However, they will allow him to leave on one condition: he must assassinate Amin.
Garrigan, meanwhile, has an affair with one of Amin's wives, Kay (Kerry Washington), and impregnates her. While seeking an abortion in a nearby village, Kay is caught, executed, and mutilated by Amin's forces. Garrigan witnesses her violation knowing that he has caused her death: his actions (and his initial refusal to provide the abortion himself) left her no choice in her course of action. As a result of this trauma, Garrigan decides to assassinate Amin by poisoning him rather than giving him the pills for his headache.
Soon after, a hijacked Air France aircraft lands at Entebbe International Airport seeking asylum for the Palestinian hijackers on board. Amin, Garrigan, and other state officials rush to the airport to handle the situation. Here, Garrigan's plot to kill Amin is discovered and Amin reveals he is aware of the affair between Kay and Garrigan. While Amin leans close to Garrigan to tell him how he will die, Garrigan, with his characteristic boldness in addressing Amin, denounces him: "You're a child, that's what makes you so fucking scary."
Amin orders Garrigan beaten and tortured, but Garrigan is eventually rescued by a Ugandan colleague, Dr. Junju (David Oyelowo), who offers his help (and ultimately his life) in exchange for Garrigan's promise to return to Europe and tell the world the truth about Idi Amin. Again, the ambivalence of Garrigan's moral position is invoked: Garrigan asks Junju, "Why are you doing this [for me]?" and Junju replies, "Frankly, I don't know—you deserve to die." But Junju goes on to explain that Garrigan is in a position to go back home and tell the rest of the world about Amin's atrocities. "They will believe you," he says. "You are a white man."
Garrigan sneaks aboard a plane with a group of released hostages, leaving behind a furious, heartbroken Amin.
----------
http://dtracorp.com/print/direct/type/n/it/f/filename/406px-The_Last_King_of_Scotland-1171797657.jpg