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Amin: We’re all guilty
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Directed by Kevin MacDonald
Certificate 18
THE opening scenes of The Last King of Scotland shows two worlds. One is a Uganda of rural villages where poverty and ill health stalk the fields and the other is filled with opulent mansions inhabited by President Idi Amin Dada and his cronies. It sets the tone for a watchable and questioning film.
Dr Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) is recently qualified as a doctor, and faces the choice of joining his father in a Scottish town as a GP – or spinning a globe in his room, sticking his finger on it and travelling to that country to practise.
His finger lands on Uganda, and this action starts a descent into a terrible experience that ultimately costs many lives.
Garrigan’s work at first is that of a the white doctor hoping to save the lives on the poor. Working in a small hospital in the countryside, the viewer is given the feeling that although he has altruistic ideals at heart, he also has the air of a gap year student about him, trying to seduce the doctor’s wife and hoping to find fun and adventure on his African odyssey.
He hears Amin, the leader of the recent armed coup, give a rousing speech and then, when the new President is in a minor car accident, he steps in and bandages Amin’s sprained wrist.
Amin takes a shine to the young doctor, and Dr Garrigan finding himself flattered by Amin’s apparent respect for his views as well as his Scottish heritage, and blinded by the gift of a Mercedes sports car, quickly finds himself a willing participant in Amin’s regime.
As the state of Amin’s mental health become more apparent and his vicious nature clear, Garrigan finds himself trapped. It leads to a marvellously claustrophobic atmosphere through out the film and the Last King of Scotland also possesses a brutal streak that will have you wincing at the crimes committed. One of the sadder aspects director Kevin MacDonald highlights is the fact that the world has the blood of the 300,000 people Amin butchered on its hands – and who has been held to account? What will history make of this sorry period?
Idi Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia, and was never tried for his crimes.
Britain’s odious attitude towards foreign affairs is shown by the Foreign Office fixer while it is made clear that Amin was a product of the British Army.
In political academic Samuel Finer’s excellent book, The Man On Horseback, the colonial hangover meant for much of Africa the observance of the right for self-determination was forgotten in the latter half of the 20th century as the colonial powers withdrew from their spheres of influence.
Instead they left a legacy of a strong civil service, a respect for military-trained hardmen and an undeveloped culture of democratic ideals, as this film so rightly reminds us, and in a timely manner with the recent execution of Saddam Hussein, that the blame for Amin’s regime must be shouldered by the West as well as the clique in Uganda responsible for the terrible crimes he committed.
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