Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Last King of Scotland (2006) - Macdonald's Idi Amin thriller debut is an electric accomplishment

8/22/2018

The Last King of Scotland (2006) - Macdonald's Idi Amin thriller debut is an electric accomplishment

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Thriller of the Year + Best Huge Hit Movie of the Year

Looming ominously above the white X and defining this poster for Kevin Macdonald's The Last King of Scotland is the interesting face of Forest Whitaker as the title character

Young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan comes to Uganda on an idealistic mission in the early 1970s and befriends the country's new president Idi Amin, developing into a personal doctor and adviser for Amin, whose reign comes to evolve into a murderous regime.

The Last King of Scotland is written by Peter Morgan (The Queen (2006)) and Jeremy Brock (Mrs Brown (1997)), adapting the same-titled 1998 novel by Giles Foden (Ladysmith (1999)), and directed by great Scottish filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (Black Sea (2014)), whose fiction feature debut it is, and who mainly was a documentarian before it. The film serves as a very successful portrait of Uganda's late president Amin in 1970s Africa, which doesn't seem so much different from the way the continent often appears today.
The Last King of Scotland distinguishes itself with a beginning that's laced with welcome humor and high spirits, only to then change over into becoming a high-octane thriller.
James McAvoy (White Teeth (2002), miniseries) is cute as naive doctor Garrigan; Gillian Anderson (Crisis (2014), TV-series) dazzles in a supporting part, and Forest Whitaker (Ripple Effect (2007)) deserved his Oscar for his portrayal of the psychotic, unpredictable manipulator Amin.

Related post:

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 48.3 mil. $
= Huge hit (8.05 times the cost)
[The Last King of Scotland premiered 1 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 123 minutes. Shooting took place in Uganda from June 2005 - ?. The Garrigan character is fictional, and the film changes some details in Ugandan history and Amin's reign but was reportedly well-received in the country. It opened #37 to a terrific 142k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #17 and in 517 theaters, playing a long 34 weekends, grossing 17.6 mil. $ (36.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.1 mil. $ (23 %) and France with 2.9 mil. $ (6 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar for Best Actor (Whitaker), which it won. It also won a Golden Globe, 3/5 BAFTA nominations, 2/6 British Independent Spirit awards, was nominated for 6 European Film awards, won a National Board of Review award and many other honors. Macdonald returned with My Enemy's Enemy (2007, documentary) and fictionally with State of Play (2009). Whitaker returned with a voice performance in Everyone's Hero (2006), ER (2006-07) and The Shield (2006-07) and theatrically in the flesh in The Air I Breathe (2007). McAvoy returned in Penelope (2006). The Last King of Scotland is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

8/22/2018

The Last King of Scotland (2006) - Macdonald's Idi Amin thriller debut is an electric accomplishment

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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