The Last King of Scotland – Blu-ray Disc Review

February 5, 2010 – 6:15 PM - Posted by: Brendan Surpless

Tags: Adam Kotz, Forest Whitaker, FOX, Gillian Anderson, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Kevin Macdonald, Simon McBurney

has an average rating of 7.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are DVD ports
–
– 2006
– 123 minutes
– FOX
–
This uses 27.9GB for the movie out of 37.5GB total.

Overall Verdict – Highly Recommended

Buy it for $20.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Brendan Surpless

Trailer:

The Movie Itself is directed by Kevin Macdonald (known for directing “State of Play“). The year is 1970 and doctor Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) has recently graduated with his degree. Instead of joining his fathers practice, Nicholas decides to spin a globe and let fate figure out where his services are needed. Originally landing on Canada, he spins the globe once more and lands on Uganda. Once in Uganda, Nicholas beings to tend to the locals, helping where he can. He runs into Dr. David Merrit (Adam Kotz) and his wife Sarah (Gillian Anderson), a woman who Nicholas immediately finds attractive. Coinciding with his arrival, General Idi Amin (a brilliant Forest Whitaker) has completed a successful coup d’etat of Uganda’s incumbent president. Having been slightly injured, Amin needs a doctor to tend to his hand, which brings Nicholas into the situation. Recognizing his shirt with the country of Scotland on it, Amin becomes interested in Nicholas soon making him his personal physician and trusted confidant. The film is based on the the 1998 novel by Giles Foden, telling of the rise of Amin to dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. It should come as no real surprise that “The Last King of Scotland” is an incredibly powerful film only really faltering in one minor detail.

With this being the first time I’ve watched this film, every single piece of information I had ever heard about this one revolved around the stunning performance by Whitaker. Clearly this is true, but I figure I’ll mention another strong role. McAvoy, an actor I’ve recently started to really pay attention thanks to “Atonement“, captures the essence of Garrigan. Through his sense and desire to simply want to help anyone he can, he seemingly befriends Amin not realizing what he truly is (more on that in a moment). This doesn’t matter to Garrigan as he sees the human being Amin is and McAvoy delivers this in a truly convincing manner. Speaking of convincing, a review of “The Last King of Scotland” can’t mention the word convincing with also mentioning Whitaker in the same sentence. Whitaker delivers his career defining role here brilliantly bringing home every little aspect of who Amin was both as a person and as a dictator. There isn’t much I can say that hasn’t been said, but I will tell that this is a performance that demands to be seen.

If I had to mention one slight negative about “Scotland“, it would be the genocide aspect of who Amin was. I’m not writing that I openly wanted to see bodies upon bodies piled up, but Amin is now known in history for his genocides, for his brutal rule. The film only touches on this aspect of him via an ending text. Granted I suppose one could argue that “Scotland” was more about what Garrigan saw in his day to day basis as Amin’s trusted doctor/confidant, but I wouldn’t have minded just a slight moment on this.

In closing, “The Last King of Scotland” easily earns the praise the film has received over the years. While McAvoy is a solid addition to the cast, Whitaker steals the show with a performance that is so on key that you might think he embodied everything that Amin was. I can’t really say this film is for everyone, but I feel confident that those out there looking for a movie with all-around great performances will enjoy “The Last King of Scotland“. Heck even if you don’t, watch a few moments just to witness Whitaker’s stunning job.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Colors can tend to be somewhat saturated at times resulting in a darker image. Fleshtones/Contrast levels are occasionally hot. This wasn’t a huge issue for myself though as I felt it complimented the Uganda locale climate. The film does have a somewhat heavier grain level, which for some can feel like the image can lose detail. The grain level is intact giving a very natural film-like image that felt more like a documentary style movie. Detail is fairly accurate as well. There are a few moments where the image does have a bit of pop (mostly outside of Amin’s palace). The image doesn’t really boast a demo worthy style image; however, I was still quite pleased with the transfer. All in all this earns a “4 Star Rating“.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. Dialogue is well reproduced with no instance of drop out. Even Whitaker’s somewhat heavier Ugandian accent is easy to understand. The film’s score by Alex Heffes is represented well coming across the soundstage mixing in perfectly with the dialogue/any effects. Dynamics are solid as well with discrete effects, whether they be background dialogue or items like gun shots/explosions, coming through nicely. Pans through rears are nearly invisible blending in well. All in all this earns a “4 Star Rating“.

Bonus materials are presented in Standard Definition (SD) video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound @192kbps unless otherwise noted below in the descriptions.

• Deleted Scenes: Here we get a total of 11min44sec worth of deleted scenes. Of most interest to me was the alternate opening that director Macdonald felt should have been used for the opening as it showed Amin boxing during his time with the British Army.
• Capturing Idi Amin: This runs 29min4sec and is a solid look at the challenges the cast and crew had with bringing a man like Amin to the big screen. There’s a mix of archival footage (mostly black and white) as well as interviews.
• Forest Whitaker: Idi Amin: This is a brief (5min59sec) look at what Whitaker did to prepare himself for this role.
• Fox Movie Channel presents Casting Session: This runs 8min35sec and gives us a few cast interviews highlighting their thoughts on the film.

Overall, the bonus materials presented don’t offer anything really new from the dvd counterpart. I would’ve liked to see a retrospective commentary from Whitaker on his performance, but perhaps that’s for a future release.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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