Last King of Scotland

[Pooh's Pixie]

DH and I watched this movie last night. It was excellent, a bit disturbing, and Forest Whitaker was great. My question is, did a character like the Scottish doctor exist, or was that all fictionalized to allow the audience to delve into Idi Amin's character? I feel like sometimes when we watch DVDs, we miss the "movie buzz" that you hear when a movie first comes out, so I don't know if this was something that was discussed when the movie came out.
Thanks!

 

[pogo791]

According to the article on the movie in all-knowing Wikipedia:

"Garrigan is a fictional character, but his story is very loosely based on events in the life of English-born Bob Astles. Like the novel on which it is based, the film mixes fiction with real events in Ugandan history to give an impression of Amin and Uganda under his totalitarian rule. While the basic events of Amin's life are followed, the film often departs in the details of particular events.

The film condenses the timeframe of real events; for example, Amin expelled the Asians in 1972, and the airplane hijacking took place in 1976, but in the film they appear to take place closer in time.

Many of the Ugandan landmarks seen in the movie did not exist in the 1970s."

And you're right, Whitaker was great in that role - and his Oscar well-deserved.

 

[Pooh's Pixie]

Thanks, it sort of seems an amazing story and I was hoping in the end they would tell us whatever became of the doctor...interesting movie though. I am a little too young to remember much about Amin, except I remember hearing about him as a dictator.

 

[barkley]

if your dvd has the special features check them out. they tell of how the production blends fact and fiction-and talks about how some of the real events have become very fictionalized over the years (as with the true circumstances of the murder of the one wife of amin).

i enjoyed this movie but i was realy surprised at how they brushed over amin's brutality and the way his staff facilitated his actions. several years ago i watched 'the rise and fall of idi amin' which which was made i think in the 80's. i was surprised that 'last king' did'nt show the scope of the murders he personaly carried out (i remember one scene where in the middle of a heated coversation with a religious leader he simply lost it and shot the man-his staff took the body and put it into a car and made a lousy attempt at trying to explain it off as death due to a car accident-in 'last king' they mentioned the death of the religious leader but not his involvement), but i guess they were largly showing it from the doctor's perspective.

 

[Pooh's Pixie]

i enjoyed this movie but i was realy surprised at how they brushed over amin's brutality and the way his staff facilitated his actions. several years ago i watched 'the rise and fall of idi amin' which which was made i think in the 80's. i was surprised that 'last king' did'nt show the scope of the murders he personaly carried out (i remember one scene where in the middle of a heated coversation with a religious leader he simply lost it and shot the man-his staff took the body and put it into a car and made a lousy attempt at trying to explain it off as death due to a car accident-in 'last king' they mentioned the death of the religious leader but not his involvement), but i guess they were largly showing it from the doctor's perspective.

I know what you mean about this. It was, in a way, a somewhat sympathetic portrait of Amin. Yes, you saw how crazy he was but you also glimpsed his charisma and charm. I agree that it was probably because it was supposed to be the doctor's perspective. Although two of the movie's scenes were very gruesome, and I am pretty tolerant of that kind of stuff in movies. So I don't know if I could've handled more!!!

 

[GoofyDad869]

I know what you mean about this. It was, in a way, a somewhat sympathetic portrait of Amin. Yes, you saw how crazy he was but you also glimpsed his charisma and charm. I agree that it was probably because it was supposed to be the doctor's perspective. Although two of the movie's scenes were very gruesome, and I am pretty tolerant of that kind of stuff in movies. So I don't know if I could've handled more!!!

Yeah, I'm not very squeamish with movie scenes, but I had to cringe at the meathooks in the airport's liquor store scene.