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| “ | Look at you. Is there one thing you have done that is good? Did you think this was all a game? 'I will go to Africa and I will play the white man with the natives.' Is that what you thought? We are not a game, Nicholas. We are real. This room here, it is real. I think your death will be the first real thing that has happened to you. | „ |
| ~ Idi Amin Dada threatening Nicholas Garrigan. |
| “ | I am the father of this nation, Nicholas. And you have most... grossly... offended your father. | „ |
| ~ Amin sentencing Garrigan to be executed. |
Idi Amin Dada is the titular main antagonist of 2006 film The Last King of Scotland.
He is based on the real life dictator of the same name who rose to power in 1971 in a bloody military coup against the former president of Uganda Milton Obote. He is the onetime physician, friend and mentor of the main protagonist, Nicholas Garrigan.
He was portrayed by Forest Whitaker, who also played Rawlins in Bloodsport, John Kavanaugh in The Shield, Jack Wander in Street Kings, Saw Gerrera in the Star Wars franchise and Bumpy Johnson in Godfather of Harlem.
Personality[]
In the beginning of the film, Amin is shown be a jovial person, albeit Anglophobic as shown when Garrigan took the former's gun to kill an injured cow and Amin thinks Garrigan is British until revealed as Scottish, whom Amin admires for their resistance against the British.
He also sees killing the opposition as necessary for lasting peace in Uganda. However, as the film progress, Amin's true nature is revealed as a delusional xenophobe who kills for pleasure.
Biography[]
Amin turned Uganda into a famine and poverty-ridden wasteland. His rule was characterized by gross human rights abuse, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, Nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement. He murdered an estimated three hundred thousand Ugandans and left children without their parents. He even mutilated his own wife and slaughtered his ministers. After executions were carried out, Amin usually fed his victims to the crocodiles or simply tossed their bodies into the Nile River. He ruled Uganda from 1971 to 1979 until he was officially thrown out of power when he started a war with his neighboring country Tanzania and lost. Until his death, Amin felt that his country needed him and was never brought to justice for his atrocious and terrible crimes.
In the movie, General Idi Amin overthrows incumbent president Milton Obote in a coup d'état. Nicholas Garrigan sincerely believes Amin will help the country, while Sarah warns him of dictators who have taken over before. Garrigan is called to a minor car accident involving Amin where he treats his hand. During the incident, Garrigan takes a gun and shoots a mortally wounded cow because no one else has the presence of mind to put it out of its misery. Amin is impressed by his quick action and initiative. Amin, fond of Scotland as a symbol of resilience and admiring the Scottish people for their resistance to the English, is delighted to discover Garrigan's nationality and exchanges his military shirt for Garrigan's Scotland shirt. Later, Amin invites Garrigan to become his personal physician and take charge of modernizing the country's health care system.
Garrigan soon becomes Amin's trusted confidant and is relied on for much more than medical care, such as matters of state. Although Garrigan is aware of violence around Kampala, he accepts Amin's explanation that cracking down on the opposition will bring lasting peace to the country. Garrigan discovers that the polygamous leader 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 form a relationship and sleep with each other, but Kay tells him he must find a way to leave Uganda. Eventually, Garrigan begins to lose faith in Amin as he witnesses the increasing paranoia, repressive murders, and xenophobia in expelling South Asians from the country. Amin replaces Garrigan's British passport with a Ugandan one to prevent him from escaping, which leads Garrigan to frantically seek help from Stone, the local British Foreign Office representative. Garrigan is told the British will help him leave Uganda if he uses his position to assassinate Amin, but Garrigan refuses.
Kay informs Garrigan that she has become pregnant with his child, but later knows that Amin will murder her for infidelity if he discovers this, so 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. She 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 savagely mutilated corpse on an autopsy table and falls retching to his knees, finally confronting the palpable inhumanity of Amin's regime and decides killing him will end it all.
A hijacked aircraft is flown to Entebbe by pro-Palestinian hijackers seeking asylum from agents of international law. Amin rushes to the scene to help them, 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. His treachery revealed, Garrigan is beaten by Amin's henchmen before Amin himself arrives and discloses he is aware of the relationship with Kay. As punishment, Garrigan's chest is pierced with meat hooks and he is hanged by his skin.
Amin arranges a plane for the release of non-Israeli passengers, and the torturers leave Garrigan bleeding 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 oppressive regime, asserting that because Garrigan is white the world will believe him. 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 shot dead while the plane departs with Garrigan on board. Amin is informed too late to prevent it, while Garrigan tearfully remembers the people of Uganda.
The epilogue shows real footage of Amin, as well as figures such as the three hundred thousand that died under his regime, and tells of his eventual 2003 death while in exile in Saudi Arabia.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Forest Whitaker received an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a SAG and a BAFTA for his performance.
- Whitaker prepared for the role by meeting with many of Amin's ministers and trusted confidants, learning how to play the accordion and speak the Swahili dialect.
- Because of this film, Forest Whitaker was detained in Uganda's Entebbe Airport in 2014 while on a relief mission, after being mistaken by a newly-employed immigration officer as the real Idi Amin.