The Last King Of Scotland

[C is for Company]

Posted: 4/28/07 at 12:20am

Okay, I searched because I could have sworn seeing a thread on this before, but nothing came up. If there was one made, I wouldn't mind someone bumping it up if they find it to replace this one.

It was absolutely intense and incredibly well-acted. I was dying to catch it and when it came to the $2 movie theater in Poughkeepsie I was sold. I went with a friend and when it started off slightly iffy, I was hoping I wouldn't be apologizing for taking her to see it afterwards.

However, we both came out exasperated and marveled at the riveting performances. Anybody else have any thoughts to share?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/28/07 at 12:23am

Yeah, I thought it was excellent.

Thrilling, horrifying, funny, sad - everything.

[lildogs]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 11:28am

I was really impressed witht he film itself--watched it last night. And although Forest is great, he's by no means the lead. I would have preferred to see him in the supporting category which he would have easily won as well. But I digress...SPOILER ALERT!

I thought it was very well-written, almost Shakespearean in its scope. McAvoy was very good too but I must say, when Amin ordered his torture, I was so personally hurt that I kinda turned on the movie. I was so upset that he would do that to his friend, I couldn't separate myself from the film--so I guess that's a huge compliment.

Didn't that oily English guy remind you of Roman Polanski?

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 1:35pm

Hah, I do see where you come from with Roman.

I actually think the film did a good job between balancing our attitudes of how sad it is that Nicholas was stuck in this position in a country that he no longer wanted to be in and also how we felt when he made stupid, stupid decisions.

[lildogs]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 1:56pm

I agree--what I liked was how SCOTLAND was about themes much larger than the Amin regime--the nature of fatherhood, loyalty and race relations. I felt that Amin and Garrigan had a Prince Hal/Falstaffian relationship in which the dynamics often changed.

Forest gets to go to town as Amin--chewing scenery, playing every facet of the human condition--it's a fabulous though brief performance.

Do you think the scene toward the end in which he gives Amin the pills while he's watching DEEP THROAT was real or a dream?

Also do you think Kay intentionally had the affair to get out of the marriage?

I think the film treats the audience much like it treats Garrigan--We/he know(s) that Amin is a butcher but since we don't SEE it, we play along, both of us complacent--I think that's why when he strings Garrigan up, I felt so betrayed by the film and Amin--the film sets us and the doctor to love Idi, only to have him attack us both in the end.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 2:11pm

I had to keep reminding myself for the first 2/3 of the movie about the real Amin. We totally were suckered in by his personality and the fact that this movie is so well tailored to this ignorant perspective of Western-type thinking. He has no idea what is going on and neither do we, we only judge Idi Amin by what we see.

It was when things got suspicious and his "condition" or what you will call it, becomes so tensely apparent that I was on the edge of my seat throughout.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 2:12pm

I honestly don't see how the theory of that scene being a dream would hold up.

He gives Amin the pills in that scene - and those exact pills in the very next scene is what leads to the "assasination" of Garrigan. He clearly gave them the pills. The film is too realistic and straightforward to throw in a dream scene. I think that's kind of crazy.

And no, I don't think she had an affair to get out of her marriage. If that were the case, she would have done it a LONG time ago and/or wouldn't have been so upset about being pregnant.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 2:14pm

I don't know, I think if I were her, I'd rather stick with the mansion I had with my children instead of ending up the way she did. She knew he was brutal and capable of doing something like that which makes me all the more confused that she would spent the night with Garrigan like that.

[lildogs]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 2:30pm

I had thought in the beginning that she acted odd when Amin introduced her to Garrigan--she seemed very uncomfortable with the multiple wives set-up. And Garrigan and Amin have that moment in the beginning in which Amin says that married women are the best because they're so grateful--which alerted me that Garrigan would probably screw one of Amin's girls. And they didn't live with the rest of the wives--they lived apart and the son was almost a secret. I guess he didn't want to endanger his male heir. She also knew that going to the local abortionist would surely cause her death one way or another.

As far as the dream goes, first it was JUST a question and the way the film is cut, leading from the intoxication of the party and the sex with Kay, Garrigan enters a dreamy version of Amin's lair. The lights, sound and dialogue have a languid, off-balance feel that led me to believe that it may be a dream--yes, he really gave him the pills but it's as if the audience is given Garrigan's point of view which is obviously cloudy--the film invites us to se the world as Garrigan sees it--both blindly and later with the harsh reality. I didn't think it was necessarily a dream, but it certainly has a different tone and feel.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 2:47pm

It absolutely does lil, you are right about that part of the film. If you watch the very last few minutes, there is such clarity and relief on the screen as opposed to the very warped color tones used in that Deep Throat scene. It was very disconcerting and heavy with suspense and after we'd just seen, taxing getting into that scene. There are a lot of subtle touches made like that in the film with the color and "feel" it envokes.

One of the best films I'd seen in a while.

[lildogs]

Posted: 5/16/07 at 3:02pm

Stylistically, it reminded me alot of APOCALYPSE NOW, though I'm not sure why--maybe that jungle feel....

I think for me that scene was about him getting so wasted that he's able to contemplate killing his friend and father--it's not any coincidence that the first scene shows Garrigan defying his real father's wishes for him--the DEEP THROAT scene evokes alot--the film itself connotes the real-life Deep Throat,an insider who betrayed his superiors with damning testimony, much like Garrigan would do to Amin. I don't think it's a dream so much as an enhanced memory--they way Garrigan remembers it happening, which may or may not be accurate.