The Last King of Scotland (2006) on Netflix
R20062h 3mBiographyDramaHistory
In 1970, Nicholas Garrigan leaves Edinburgh for a missionary clinic in Uganda. General Idi Amin seizes power and, finding the doctor Scottish, makes him his personal physician.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/10207,331 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes87%
Trailer
Plot summary
With few prospects at home after medical school, Nicholas Garrigan seeks adventure abroad and takes a post at a clinic in Uganda that David Merrit runs with his wife, Sarah. A coup brings General Idi Amin to power. After Amin is hurt in a car accident, Garrigan treats his hand and also shoots a mortally wounded cow that no one else will put down. Amin, delighted to learn the doctor is Scottish, swaps clothes with him and invites him to become his personal physician and to take charge of the country's healthcare. Amin comes to rely on Garrigan as a confidant, giving him duties that reach into matters of state, and Garrigan takes his word that the crackdown on political opponents will bring lasting peace.
Cast
- Sarah Nagayias Tolu
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- 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, plus awards from the Boston, Los Angeles, New York and National Society critics groups: at least 23 major awards.
- The film's fictional doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, was partly inspired by two real men who worked near Idi Amin: English-born aide Bob Astles and Scottish physician Wilson Carswell.
SPOILER
The film's coda states that Israeli forces "liberated all but one of the hostages" at Entebbe; in fact three hostages died during Operation Entebbe, and the body of a fourth, a 75-year-old killed by Uganda Army officers at a nearby hospital, was eventually returned to Israel.SPOILER
In real life and in the book, Kay Amin was impregnated by her lover, a Ugandan physician; she died during a botched abortion performed by him and he subsequently died by suicide. Astles said her body was dismembered so it could be hidden and was then sewn back together on Amin's orders.- Foden said the film's depiction of Amin is comparable with the Shakespearean character Macbeth, whom he had in mind when writing the novel the film is based on.
- Made on a relatively modest $6 million budget, the film ended up grossing more than eight times that amount, taking in $48.4 million worldwide.
