If I could decide the Oscars all by myself,  the King (Forest Whitaker) and the Queen (Helen Mirren) would receive the 2007 Oscars for best actor. The two roles could not be more different. But Whitaker and Mirren individually deliver one of the best performances in the history of cinema portraying a real human being. Mirren plays the reigning Queen of England (see my review of a few weeks ago) whereas Forest Whitaker plays the Idi Amin, who brutally ruled Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Forest Whitaker has given many fine performances, for example in The Crying Game. Playing the complicated and contradictory personality of Amin Whitaker has handed him a role that I am sure will become his defining role.  The feelings you experience in The Last King of Scotland could not be more different from The Queen. The Queen satisfies one’s curiosity by seemingly offering you a look into the private life of the British Royal family. In the end, you come to like this reserved English aristocrat because she has dedicated her entire life to serving the British people. The King, by contrast, butchered an estimated 300,000 of his countrymen who initially believed his charismatic promises of turning Uganda into a proud self-sufficient society.  Within the flesh of a few seconds, Amin can turn from an extreme charmer to a scary strongman. Whitaker plays these mood swings so well that you almost fear Amin could leap out from the screen and brutalize you. Having recently watched Babel I realized that expecting tragedy is profoundly different from expecting violence. The King gets deeply under the skin. The only reason why you flee from the cinema to save your life is because the director never allows the shocking and disturbing scenes go on for too long. The movie is a marvelous piece of work.  It beautifully captures the style and music of the 1970s. Shooting the film in Uganda gives the drama pleasing authenticity. The Queen felt like a low budget movie compared to this marvelous Hollywood film on a difficult period in Uganda’s history. 

In the end you come to like this reserved English aristocrat because she has dedicated her entire life to serving the British people. The King, by contrast, butchered an estimated 300,000 of his countrymen who initially believed his charismatic promises of turning Uganda into a proud self-sufficient society.  Within the flash of a few seconds, Amin can turn from an extreme charmer to a scary strongman. Whitaker plays these mood swings so well that you almost fear Amin could leap out from the screen and brutalize you. Having recently watched Babel I realized that expecting tragedy is profoundly different from expecting violence. The King gets deeply under your skin. The only reason why you don’t flee from the cinema to save your life is because the director never allows the shocking and disturbing scenes to go on for too long. The movie is a marvelous piece of work.  It beautifully captures the style and music of the 1970s. Shooting the film in Uganda also gives the drama pleasing authenticity. The Queen felt like a low budget movie compared to this marvelous Hollywood style film on a difficult period in Uganda