Diane & I went to see The Last King of Scotland at my favorite indie theater in DC, the Landmark E Street. This is a must see film, if only to see Forest Whitaker, as Idi Amin, in potentially the best performance of a leading man in decades. Also, to see the idealistic and young Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, played well by James McAvoy.

This film provides a glimpse into the life of Idi Amin, the general who took over the government of Uganda in 1971 and held power until his ouster in 1979. A fictionalized character, Dr. Garrigan, is fresh out of a Scottish medical school and he wants to make a difference in the world, choosing Uganda to fulfill this desire. In a clever turn of creative events, he moves from helping out in a rural hospital to being invited to be the personal physician of Amin in the capital and to be one of Amin’s trusted close advisors.

As the hope and promise of Amin turn into violence and paranoia, our good doctor remains mostly unaware of what’s going on around him, although the clues are laid bare for the viewing audience and other members of the cast. My first favorite moment in the film is seeing the Doctor watch Amin give a speech in a rural area just after Amin has seized power from a corrupt ruler Obote. The fire in Whitaker’s portrayal of Amin burns through the celluloid into your heart. I wanted to jump up and down, supporting Amin, even knowing what the eventual outcome would be. Amin was like this and Whitaker’s portrayal is spot-on. My second favorite scene (or really, scenes) that I love is watching Whitaker/Amin’s descent from charismatic man of the people to paranoid despot.

What has the most impact on me, though, was the sense that I could have been Dr. Garrigan. If I’d left my home country at 25 or 26, and had such power and riches lavished on me by such a charismatic and political figure, I’d probably have ended up in the same situation, intoxicated by the situation and my own desires. That is a haunting thought.

See this film. Forest Whitaker should win an Oscar for his role. I really thought that he stood on the same ground as Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington in this film. That was how strong a character he was, that was the level of his art.