In the 1970s, British-trained military officer Idi Amin toppled the corrupt government of Uganda and embarked on a two-pronged assault to stabilize the country: a media blitz to charm world leaders and the international news media, and the savage slaughter of anyone within Uganda he thought might be undermining his regime.
Witness to these events, and at times a participant, was an idealistic young Scottish doctor.
That's history, according to novelist Giles Foden, who wrote the award-winning 1998 book The Last King of Scotland, and a view shared by acclaimed documentary director Kevin Macdonald in his first fictional screen drama. But the doctor, played with great sensitivity by James McAvoy, never existed. He's a literary device invented by Foden to transport his readers into Amin's inner circle.
On Monday, Forest Whitaker won a much-deserved Golden Globe for his portrayal of the outrageous Ugandan dictator, turning on a dime from charismatic leader to hellish megalomanic.
The story begins as Nicholas Garrigan, a handsome young physician, leaves med school with a lust for adventure and dreams of using his newfound skills to help cure the world. On a whim, he travels to the jungles of Uganda to assist a British doctor and his wife. A bizarre chance encounter with Amin leads to an invitation to leave his underfunded jungle mission and travel to the capital to work in luxury as Amin's private physician. The movie title refers to one of the grandiose titles Amin bestowed upon himself.
The controversy over the story begins when Foden, and later Macdonald, places the fictional character in the center of historical events, even allowing him to influence events and people who are otherwise historically accurate. Corrupted by luxury and privilege, Dr. Garrigan turns a blind eye to his benefactor's abuses. The fictional character causes the real-life murder of an Amin aide and initiates the activities that led to the actual torture and deaths of others.
Foden and Macdonald go as far as placing the fictional doctor in the middle of the Israeli raid on Entebbe, in which hijacked hostages were rescued.
When the film was released on the coasts in time for 2006 Academy Award consideration, some critics questioned the "historical novel" tactic of fictionalizing events that are otherwise factual. But it didn't bother the Ugandans. Most of The Last King of Scotland was filmed on location with the support of the Ugandan people, its government, and current President Yoweri Museveni.
Looking beyond the literary device, and with a willingness to fudge on some historical details, The Last King of Scotland is a powerful drama, as much about the corruption of youth and idealism as it is a portrait of a sociopathic tyrant. Macdonald ups the moral ante with the doctor's escalating temptations, and McAvoy, who played Mr. Tumnus, the faun in The Chronicles of Narnia, makes the transition seem chillingly believable.
Perhaps more than anything else, Idi Amin is the role Forest Whitaker was born to play. He embraces the megalomania, reveals the vulnerabilities, and explodes with the seething, unbridled violence of one of the world's most infamous despots.
The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. John Hayes is a staff writer for the Post-Gazette.
Contact him at: hayes@post-gazette.com
First Published January 19, 2007, 11:27 a.m.
