The Last King of Scotland Family Review

Based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s.After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Scottish physician Nicholas Garrigan flies to Uganda to work at a missionary clinic. And before long, Garrigan has a chance encounter with General Idi Amin, the country's new president. As one thing leads to another, Idi Amin invites Nicholas to become his personal doctor, aiming to modernise Uganda's health care system. Indeed, this is a once-in-a-lifetime offer Garrigan cannot refuse. Instead, as Garrigan plays with fire, he soon finds himself trapped in the moral abyss of Idi Amin's murderous megalomania. Can Garrigan rise above the madness and live to tell the tale?—Nick RiganasIn the early 1970s Nicholas Garrigan, a young semi-idealistic Scottish doctor, comes to Uganda to assist in a rural hospital. Once there he soon meets up with the new President, Idi Amin, who promises a golden age for the African nation. Garrigan hits it off immediately with the rabid Scotland fan, who soon offers him a senior position in the national health department and becomes one of Amin's closest advisers. However as the years pass, Garrigan cannot help but notice Amin's increasingly erratic behavior that grows beyond a legitimate fear of assassination into a murderous insanity that is driving Uganda into bloody ruin. Realizing his dire situation with the lunatic leader unwilling to let him go home, Garrigan must make some crucial decisions that could mean his death if the despot finds out.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])