Review of the film "The Last king of Scotland"

Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) wasn’t looking to change the world.

He just wanted an excuse to keep him from spending the rest of his life in Scotland, in medical practice with his father. So a spin of the globe leads the young doctor to service in a small village in Uganda.

Garrigan arrives in Uganda as the people are celebrating the coup that brought Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) to power. When the new president visits the village where Garrigan works, Amin’s vibrant personality instantly wins the young doctor—and the rest of the village—over. After Amin’s speech, the president is injured in an accident, and Garrigan is called upon to treat his hand—and the encounter leads him to amazing new opportunities. First, he’s offered a position as the president’s personal physician—and before long, he’s one of Amin’s most trusted advisors, often attending meetings and making decisions in the president’s absence.


For a while, Garrigan enjoys his good fortune—rejecting requests from the British government officials in Uganda for details about Amin’s policies and plans for the country. But as the president becomes more paranoid and impulsive—and as members of Amin’s staff begin to mysteriously disappear—Garrigan begins to realize that the allegations against Amin could very well be true. He starts looking for a way to get out of Uganda alive—but Amin has no intention of letting him go.

Based on the novel by Giles Foden, The Last King of Scotland offers an interesting (albeit fictional) look at Idi Amin’s regime. Whitaker is enchanting as the infamous leader—and he makes it easy to see why, initially, so many people saw his rise to power as a positive thing. He’s charismatic and fun-loving and personable—exactly the kind of guy whom everyone wants to be around. Keep in mind, though, that if you’re looking for a historically-accurate overview of Amin’s rule, you’ll be disappointed—because that’s not the point of the movie. It’s not a documentary. Instead, it’s a glimpse of history, as seen from the perspective of a fictional character.

Since the film’s focus is on Garrigan, the blissfully unaware young doctor (who was loosely based on Bob Astles, a British soldier who became one of Amin’s top advisors), you’ll see what Garrigan sees—that is, very little. You’ll discover the grim reality of the situation gradually—just as Garrigan does. Though it doesn’t give you the whole story, it gives you all of Garrigan’s story. And though its conclusion is somewhat abrupt, The Last King of Scotland tells a captivating story about a fascinating historical figure—and Whitaker’s show-stealing, Oscar-winning performance alone makes it worth seeing.

President for Life - New York Times

For an excellent review of the book, "The last king of Scotland", please click on the link below:

President for Life - New York Times

In August we will be discussing:

"The Last King of Scotland" by Giles Foden

August Meeting ~ Change of Day!!!!!!!

Please note that in August we will be meeting on Thursday 14th August at the usual time & place.

Book Club Choices for the rest of the year ~ 2008

July
Firelight and Woodsmoke
Claude Michelet

August
Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden

September
Never Let Me go
Kazuo Ishiguro

October
Grasshopper
Barbara Vine

November
A Piano in the Pyrenees
Tony Hawkes

July Book Club Choice..........

Hi Everyone in the Book Club & potential new members

The Book club will meet at the usual venue at the hotel.

Under discussion is: "Firelight & Woodsmoke" by Claude Michelet.

Reviews of the Book and information about the author are available on the St Yrieix Book club Blog. http://vernonboy.blogspot.com

Please let Pat Dixon know of your coffee/lunch requirements a few days before the meeting.

All welcome ~ but if you are a new member, please contact us to let us know you’re joining. _________________ Gorseinonboy................

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan: I despise militant Islam
By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:16PM BST 22/06/2008


The award-winning novelist Ian McEwan has launched an outspoken attack on militant Islam, accusing it of "wanting to create a society that I detest".


Ian McEwan has been criticised by the Muslim Council of Britain
The author said he "despises Islamism" because of its views on women and homosexuality.
But predicting a backlash against his comments, which were made in an Italian newspaper, he insisted he was not a racist.
The writer of Atonement and Enduring Love condemned religious hardliners as he defended his friend, the writer Martin Amis, against charges of racism.
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Amis was accused last year of being Islamaphobic after he said that "the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order".
In an essay written the day before the fifth anniversary of the bombing of New York's Twin Towers, the novelist suggested "strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan", preventing Muslims from travelling, and further down the road, deportation.
In The Age of Horrorism, Amis argued that fundamentalists had won the battle between Islam and Islamism.
McEwan, 60, said it was "logically absurd and morally unacceptable" that writers who speak out against militant Islam are immediately branded racist.
"As soon as a writer expresses an opinion against Islamism, immediately someone on the left leaps to his feet and claims that because the majority of Muslims are dark-skinned, he who criticises it is racist," he said in an interview in Corriere della Sera.
"This is logically absurd and morally unacceptable. Martin is not a racist. And I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on - we know it well."
McEwan recognised that similar views were held by some Christian hardliners in America.
"I find them equally absurd," he said. "I don't like these medieval visions of the world according to which God is coming to save the faithful and to damn the others. But those American Christians don't want to kill anyone in my city, that's the difference."
Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised McEwan's defence of Amis.
"Mr McEwan is being rather disingenuous about his friend, Martin Amis's remarks. Of course you should be allowed to criticise the tenets of any religion. However, Amis went much further than that," he said.
"He was advocating that the Muslim community be made to suffer 'until it gets its own house in order'. And what sort of suffering did Amis have in mind? In his own words, 'Not letting them travel. Deportation - further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan ... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.'"
He added: "Those were clearly very bigoted remarks and the fact that McEwan prefers to whitewash them tells us much about his own views too."