The Last King Of Scotland

R16

2006

125 mins

Directed by Kevin Macdonald
87%
89%
Drama
True Story & Biography
Award Winner

Forrest Whitaker (who won the Golden Globe for this role) stars as the infamous Ugandan tyrant, leader and warlord Idi... More

Forrest Whitaker (who won the Golden Globe for this role) stars as the infamous Ugandan tyrant, leader and warlord Idi Amin in this political thriller. The based-on-fact story follows a young Scottish doctor, Nicholas (McAvoy), who in 1971 goes to Uganda as a medical aid. After a chance encounter, he becomes a confident of the dictator, or in Amin’s words his “white monkey”.

Amin reportedly killed half a million of his people during his reign and named himself “Lord of all Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conquerer of the British Empire in Africa in general and Uganda in particular”. Evilness aside, that’s an awesome self-proclamation. Director Macdonald employs a realistic, doco-style to follows their relationship and Amin’s rule during this time.

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Where to watch The Last King Of Scotland

The Last King Of Scotland is available to stream in... More New Zealand now on YouTube and Apple TV Store and Disney+ and Prime Video Store.

There is no screening information for this title.

The Last King Of Scotland | Ratings & Reviews

87_%183 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
89_%258,274 reviews
Audience score rating

"The film as a whole measures up to Forest Whitaker's performance...one of the great performances of modern movie history..."

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Wall Street Journal

"In the end, The Last King of Scotland is much better when it plays it cool and amusing than when it tries to ramp up outrage and indignation..."

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Variety

"Unlike Sean Penn's demagogue in "All the King's Men," you're able to forget that Whitaker is acting. He embodies the role. When clips of the real Amin are shown at the end, it's almost shocking to realize the extent to which Whitaker has become him..."

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San Francisco Chronicle

"A titanic, spittle-flecked performance by Whitaker as Idi Amin is not enough to plug the holes in a film whose main character is an opportunist Scots doctor..."

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New Zealand Herald

"An imaginative and original picture turns conventional as it ends..."

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Hollywood Reporter

"Both an enthralling examination of a horrific time and an adrenalin-filled thriller full of wry humour..."

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Empire Magazine

"[Director Macdonald would] still have given us our money's worth if he'd merely switched the camera on, thanks to Whitaker's scarily seductive, force-of-nature portrayal..."

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