The Last King of Scotland | |
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Directed by | Kevin Macdonald |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle |
Edited by | Justine Wright |
Music by | Alex Heffes |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 123 minutes [1] |
Countries | |
Languages |
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Budget | $6 million [3] |
Box office | $48.4 million [3] |
The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 historical drama film directed by Kevin Macdonald from a screenplay by Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock. Based on Giles Foden's 1998 novel, its plot depicts the dictatorship of Ugandan President Idi Amin through the perspective of Nicholas Garrigan, a fictional Scottish doctor. The film stars Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, and Gillian Anderson. The title of the film refers to Amin's spurious claim of being the King of Scotland.
The Last King of Scotland had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on 1 September 2006, and was released in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2007, and in Germany on 15 March 2007, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film received positive reviews and grossed $48.4 million on a $6 million budget. For his performance as Idi Amin, Whitaker won an Academy Award for Best Actor, among other accolades.
In 1970, Nicholas Garrigan graduates from the University of Edinburgh Medical School. With dull prospects at home, he decides to seek adventure abroad by working at a missionary clinic in Uganda run by David Merrit and his wife, Sarah. Garrigan becomes attracted to Sarah, who enjoys the attention but refuses to engage in an extramarital affair. After Garrigan arrives in Uganda, General Idi Amin overthrows President Milton Obote in a coup d'état. Amin gives a well-received speech, but Sarah is pessimistic. Garrigan is called to a car accident involving Amin and treats Amin's hand. During the incident, Garrigan takes a gun and shoots a mortally wounded cow when no-one else is willing to perform euthanasia. Initially hostile to Garrigan, Amin warms up to him after discovering he is Scottish due to his xenophilia for the Scots. Delighted by Garrigan's initiative, Amin exchanges clothing with him and subsequently invites Garrigan to serve as his personal physician and lead efforts to modernise the Ugandan healthcare system.
While working for Amin, Garrigan becomes a trusted confidant and is entrusted with a wider range of duties, include matters of state. Despite being dismayed by acts of government repression, Garrigan accepts Amin's explanation that cracking down on political opposition will bring lasting peace to Uganda. Garrigan eventually learns that Amin has ostracized the youngest of his three wives, Kay, because she has given birth to an epileptic son, Mackenzie. When treating Mackenzie, Garrigan and Kay start to form a relationship. Eventually, Garrigan becomes disillusioned by Amin as he witnesses increasing amounts of paranoia, murders and xenophobia. He attempts to announce his intention to return home, but is rebuffed by Amin. While at a party, after doing his best to evade a go-go dancer who is assigned to become his lover, he and Kay have sex, and she says he must find a way to leave Uganda. Amin secretly replaces Garrigan's British passport with a Ugandan one to prevent him from escaping, which leads Garrigan to seek help from Stone, the local Foreign Office representative. Garrigan is told by Stone he will be secretly transported out of Uganda if he assassinates Amin, which Garrigan refuses.
In 1972, Amin orders the expulsion of Asians from Uganda over Garrigan's protests. This creates a labor shortage that tanks Uganda's economy. Kay informs Garrigan that she has become pregnant with his child. Aware that Amin will murder her for infidelity if he discovers this, she begs Garrigan for a secret abortion. Delayed by Amin's command that he attend a press conference with Western journalists, Garrigan fails to meet Kay at the appointed time. Kay concludes she has been abandoned and seeks out a primitive abortion in a nearby village, where she is apprehended by Amin's forces. Garrigan finds her dismembered corpse on an autopsy table. Distraught, he decides to kill Amin. A hijacked aircraft is flown to Entebbe Airport by pro-Palestinian hijackers seeking asylum. Amin, sensing a major publicity opportunity, rushes to the scene, taking Garrigan along. At the airport, one of Amin's bodyguards discovers Garrigan's plot to poison Amin under the ruse of giving him pills for a headache. Garrigan is beaten by Amin's henchmen before Amin arrives and discloses he is aware of the relationship with Kay. As punishment, Garrigan's chest is pierced with meat hooks before he is hanged by his skin.
Amin arranges a plane for the release of non-Israeli passengers, and the torturers leave Garrigan unconscious on the floor while they relax in another room. Garrigan's medical colleague, Dr. Junju, takes advantage of the opportunity to rescue him. He urges Garrigan to tell the world the truth about Amin's regime, asserting that the world will believe Garrigan because he is white. Junju gives Garrigan his own jacket, enabling him to mingle unnoticed with the crowd of freed hostages and board the plane. When the torturers discover Garrigan's absence, Junju is killed for aiding in the escape. The Entebbe incident irreparably ruins Amin's reputation in the international community, and in 1979 he decides to invade Tanzania, which counterattacks and captures Kampala, overthrowing him. He lives the rest of his life in exile in Saudi Arabia until his death in 2003.
While the character of Idi Amin and some of the events surrounding him in the film are mostly based on fact, Garrigan is a fictional character. Foden has acknowledged that one real-life figure who contributed to the character Garrigan was English-born Bob Astles, who worked with Amin. [4] Another real-life figure who has been mentioned in connection with Garrigan is Scottish doctor Wilson Carswell. [5] Like the novel on which it is based, the film mixes fiction with real events to give an impression of Amin and Uganda under his rule. While the basic arc of Amin's rule is followed, the events in the film depart from both actual history and the plot and characters in Foden's novel.
In real life and in the book, Kay Amin was impregnated by her lover, who was a Ugandan physician (given a different name in the book than in real life). She died during a botched abortion performed by him, and he subsequently committed suicide. [6] Astles said in a lengthy interview for The Times with the journalist Paul Vallely that her body was dismembered by her lover so it could be hidden and was then sewn back together on Amin's orders. [7] Amin never had a son named Campbell.
Contrary to the wording of the film's coda stating, "48 hours later, Israeli Forces stormed Entebbe and liberated all but one of the hostages", three hostages died during Operation Entebbe. The body of a fourth hostage, 75-year-old Dora Bloch, who was killed by Uganda Army officers at a nearby hospital in retaliation for Israel's actions, was eventually returned to Israel. [8] The murder of Dora Bloch is depicted accurately in the book but not mentioned at all in the film. Also when the non-Israeli hostages were released, they are seen being flown out of Entebbe, Uganda to Paris, France on an Antonov An-12 aircraft, but in real life the non-Israeli hostages were flown to Paris on a chartered Air France Boeing 747. [9] [10]
According to Foden, the film's depiction of Amin is comparable with the Shakespearean character Macbeth, whom he had in mind when writing the novel. [11]
The Last King of Scotland received a limited release in the United States on 27 September 2006, a UK release on 12 January 2007, a French release on 14 February 2007, and a German release on 15 March 2007. In the United States and Canada, the film earned $17,606,684 at the box office. In the United Kingdom, the film took $11,131,918. Its combined worldwide gross was $48,362,207. [12]
The Last King of Scotland has an approval rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 185 reviews, with an average score of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Forest Whitaker's performance as real-life megalomaniac dictator Idi Amin powers this fictionalized political thriller, a blunt and brutal tale about power and corruption". [13] At Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [14]
Whitaker won in the leading actor category at the Academy Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Whitaker also won awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association, the National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics' Circle, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, and many other critics awards, for a total of at least 23 major awards, with at least one more nominations.
As of 2022, Whitaker from The Last King of Scotland and Helen Mirren from The Queen are the only two lead performances for portraying real-life leaders, and is the only lead actor to ever sweep the rarest achievements known as "The Big Four" critics awards (LAFCA, NBR, NYFCC, NSFC) as well as win the Oscar, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG awards in the same year.
The film was received well in Uganda, where it premiered two days before Whitaker won the Academy Award. [15]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
AARP Movies for Grownups Awards | Best Movie for Grownups | Won | [16] | |
Academy Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [17] |
African-American Film Critics Association Awards | Top 10 Films | 2nd Place | ||
Best Picture | Nominated | |||
Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | ||
Awards Circuit Community Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Runner-up | ||
BET Awards | Best Actor | Won | [18] | |
Best Actress | Kerry Washington | Nominated | ||
Black Reel Awards | Outstanding Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [19] |
Outstanding Supporting Actress | Kerry Washington | Nominated | ||
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [20] |
British Academy Film Awards | Best Film | Andrea Calderwood, Lisa Bryer, and Charles Steel | Nominated | [21] |
Outstanding British Film | Andrea Calderwood, Lisa Bryer, Charles Steel, Kevin Macdonald, Peter Morgan, and Jeremy Brock | Won | ||
Best Actor in a Leading Role | Forest Whitaker | Won | ||
Best Actor in a Supporting Role | James McAvoy | Nominated | ||
Best Adapted Screenplay | Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock | Won | ||
British Academy Scotland Awards | Best Film | Lisa Bryer, Andrea Calderwood, Kevin Macdonald, and Charles Steel | Won | [22] |
Best Actor | James McAvoy | Won | ||
Best Screenplay | Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock | Won | ||
British Independent Film Awards | Best British Independent Film | Nominated | [23] | |
Best Director | Kevin Macdonald | Won | ||
Best Actor | James McAvoy | Nominated | ||
Forest Whitaker | Nominated | |||
Best Screenplay | Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock | Nominated | ||
Best Technical Achievement | Anthony Dod Mantle (for cinematography) | Won | ||
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [24] |
Cinema for Peace Awards | The Most Valuable Film Actor | Won | [25] | |
Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Actor | Won | [26] | |
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Won | [27] | |
European Film Awards | European Film | Nominated | [28] | |
European Director | Kevin Macdonald | Nominated | ||
European Actor | James McAvoy | Nominated | ||
European Cinematographer | Anthony Dod Mantle | Nominated | ||
European Composer | Alex Heffes | Nominated | ||
People's Choice Award | Nominated | |||
Evening Standard British Film Awards | Best Screenplay | Peter Morgan (also for The Queen ) | Won | |
Best Technical Achievement | Anthony Dod Mantle (also for Brothers of the Head ) | Won | ||
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [29] |
Gold Derby Film Awards | Best Lead Actor | Nominated | [30] | |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Won | [31] | |
Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – Dialogue & ADR | Christian Conrad, Fabian Schmidt, and Dominik Schleier | Nominated | [32] |
Hollywood Film Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | |
IndieWire Critics Poll | Best Actor | 5th Place | [33] | |
International Online Cinema Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
International Online Film Critics' Poll | Best Actor | Nominated | [34] | |
Iowa Film Critics Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
Italian Online Movie Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | Won | [35] | |
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards | Best Actor | Won | [36] | |
Leggio d'oro | Best Male Performance | Paolo Buglioni (dubbing for Forest Whitaker) | Won | |
London Film Critics Circle Awards | Actor of the Year | Forest Whitaker | Won | [37] |
British Actor of the Year | James McAvoy | Nominated | ||
British Director of the Year | Kevin Macdonald | Nominated | ||
British Producer of the Year | Lisa Bryer, Andrea Calderwood, and Charles Steel | Nominated | ||
British Film of the Year | Nominated | |||
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won [lower-alpha 1] | [38] |
NAACP Image Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture | Won | [39] | |
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture | Kerry Washington | Nominated | ||
National Board of Review Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [40] |
National Society of Film Critics Awards | Best Actor | Won | [41] | |
New York Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | Won | [42] | |
New York Film Critics Online Awards | Best Actor | Won | [43] | |
North Texas Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Won | ||
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards | Top Ten Films | Won | ||
Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | ||
Online Film & Television Association Awards | Best Actor | Won | [44] | |
Online Film Critics Society Awards | Best Actor | Won | [45] | |
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Won | [46] | |
Political Film Society Awards | Human Rights | Won | ||
Santa Barbara International Film Festival | American Riviera Award | Forest Whitaker | Won | [47] |
Satellite Awards | Best Motion Picture – Drama | Nominated | [48] | |
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Forest Whitaker | Won | ||
Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role | Won | [49] | |
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Won | [50] | |
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards | Best Picture | Nominated | [51] | |
Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | ||
Stockholm International Film Festival | Best Cinematography | Anthony Dod Mantle | Won | |
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Runner-up | [52] |
USC Scripter Awards | Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock (screenwriters); Giles Foden (author) | Nominated | [53] | |
Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | Forest Whitaker | Won | [54] |
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | Won | [55] | |
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards | Best Screenplay (Feature Film) | Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock | Nominated | [56] |
The Entebbe raid or Operation Entebbe, officially codenamed Operation Thunderbolt, was a 1976 Israeli counter-terrorist mission in Uganda. It was launched in response to the hijacking of an international civilian passenger flight operated by Air France between the cities of Tel Aviv and Paris. During a stopover in Athens, the aircraft was hijacked by two Palestinian PFLP–EO terrorists and two German RZ terrorists, who diverted the flight to Libya and then to Uganda, where they landed at Entebbe International Airport to be joined by other terrorists. Once in Uganda, the group enjoyed support from Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Idi Amin Dada Oumee was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer and director. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Giles Foden is an English author, best known for his novel The Last King of Scotland (1998).
The Last King of Scotland is a novel by journalist Giles Foden, published by Faber and Faber in 1998. Focusing on the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his reign as dictator from 1971 to 1979, the novel, which interweaves fiction and historical fact, is written as the memoir of a fictional Scottish doctor in Amin's employ. Foden's novel received critical acclaim and numerous awards when it was published. In 2006, a loose eponymous film adaptation was released.
Robert Astles, BEM was a British soldier and colonial officer who lived in Uganda and became an associate of presidents Milton Obote and Idi Amin.
Victory at Entebbe is a 1976 American made-for-television action-drama film for broadcast on ABC, directed by Marvin J. Chomsky. The film starred Helmut Berger, Linda Blair, Anthony Hopkins, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Dreyfuss, and Kirk Douglas. Julius Harris portrayed Idi Amin, following the fatal heart attack suffered by the actor originally cast in the role, Godfrey Cambridge. The film was theatrically released in Europe.
Operation Thunderbolt, known in Israel as Mivtsa Yonatan, also called Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt in the US, is a 1977 Israeli film directed by Menahem Golan and stars Klaus Kinski, Yehoram Gaon and Sybil Danning. The film is based on an actual event – the hijacking of a flight by terrorists and the freeing of Israeli hostages on July 4, 1976. The operation was known as at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Operation Thunderbolt follows the events following the flight's takeoff until the hostages' return to Israel. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The 1971 Ugandan coup d'état was a military coup d'état executed by the Ugandan military, led by general Idi Amin, against the government of President Milton Obote on 25 January 1971. The seizure of power took place while Obote was abroad attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Singapore. Amin was afraid that Obote might dismiss him, and installed himself as dictator.
Joseph Ogola Olita was a Kenyan actor who was best known for portraying Idi Amin in Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981) and Mississippi Masala (1991).
James McAvoy is a Scottish actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in The Near Room (1995) and appeared mostly on television until 2003, when his feature film career began. His notable television work include the thriller State of Play (2003), the science fiction miniseries Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003), and the drama series Shameless (2004–2005).
The history of the Jews in Uganda is connected to some local tribes who have converted to Judaism, such as the Abayudaya, down to the twentieth century when Uganda under British control was offered to the Jews of the world as a "Jewish homeland" under the British Uganda Programme known as the "Uganda Plan" and culminating with the troubled relationship between Ugandan leader Idi Amin with Israel that ended with Operation Entebbe known as the "Entebbe Rescue" or "Entebbe Raid" of 1976.
Israel–Uganda relations refers to the current and historical relationship between Israel and Uganda. Neither country has a resident ambassador. Uganda has a non-resident ambassador in Cairo.
The 6th New York Film Critics Online Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2006, were given on 11 December 2006.
John Wilson Carswell is a Scottish physician who was one of the first medical researchers to identify HIV/AIDS in Uganda.
Dora Bloch, née Feinberg, a dual Israeli-British citizen, was a hostage on Air France Flight 139 from Tel Aviv to Paris. The flight was hijacked on 27 June 1976 after a stopover in Athens and rerouted to Entebbe, Uganda. Bloch became ill on the plane and was taken to a hospital in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. She was not rescued with the other hostages during Operation Entebbe, and went missing from the hospital. Her disappearance led to Britain cutting diplomatic ties with Uganda. Her body was discovered in 1979 in a sugar plantation near the capital. In February 2007, declassified British documents confirmed that she was murdered on the order of Ugandan president Idi Amin.
Entebbe is a 2018 action thriller film directed by José Padilha and written by Gregory Burke. The film recounts the story of the Entebbe raid, a 1976 counter-terrorist hostage-rescue operation, and stars Rosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl.
Isaac Maliyamungu, also known as Isaac Lugonzo, was a Ugandan military officer who served as one of President Idi Amin's most important officials and supporters during the Ugandan military dictatorship of 1971–79. Born in the Congo, Maliyamungu was one of the members of the 1971 coup that brought Amin to power, and was thereafter responsible for brutally suppressing dissidents throughout the country. Rising in the ranks, Maliyamungu amassed great power and earned a feared reputation. He was responsible for the mass murder of civilians and soldiers suspected of being disloyal to Amin.
Operation Dada Idi was a military offensive conducted by Tanzania against the Ugandan government of Idi Amin and its Libyan as well as Palestinian allies in March and April 1979 during the Uganda–Tanzania War. The attack took place amid the disintegration of the Uganda Army, and thus encountered only sporadic and disorganised resistance. The operation resulted in the Tanzanian capture of Mpigi and several other locations around Kampala.
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