The Carpricious King And His Scottish Concubine (Re-edited)
I just watched The Last King Of Scotland (2006),
a solemn movie studying the unpredictable real-life Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin (starring Forest Whitaker),
through the view of his personal physician, Nicholas Garrigan (starring James McAvoy), which is a fictional character based on four intimate persons around the president at that period.
It's astonishing to see the subtle sexual tension between the two main characters thorughout the movie.
Truly, "Nicholas. My Nicholas." is Amin's the most repeated line in the film.
I know I am not the only one who notice the prossessive pederastic relationship when I see the movie synopsis on IMDB:
"But Nicholas only looks frightened and Amin asks if there is anything else. Nicholas says no. Amin stalks and grabs Nicholas by the face and asks again. Nicholas, losing courage, still says no. Amin lets go of him and says he has to stay for the press conference. By now we realize the two men's relationship is something of bizarre love affair, an on-then-off again romance with the heart of darkness. "
Warning: NSFW
Male full-frontal and graphic images of dismemberment and torture are shown in this review.
While I am sure you have no problem with the former, I suggest you to pay attention to the disturbance from the later, which I will put an extra warning again when it comes to these scenes.
I believe if you don't pass out during the amputation scene in 127 Hours (2010), you probably can ride out the violence in this movie.
Sick of being controlled by his conventional father, the newly graduate doctor Nicolas jabs a spinning globe to determine where he should practice his skill.
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The sexual insinuations in every treatment
Click to view"The central relationship," director Kevin Macdonald admitted in a Q&A conference, "the unlikely friendship, the almost love affair between Amin and the doctor."
Every treatment that between Amin and Nicholas is charged with sexual tension.
The First Treatment:
Long story short, Amin is lightly hurt in an accident after his speech in the poor village nearby Nicholas' ruban clinic. Nicholas is summoned to treat him by some terrified soilders.
Amin: Who are you?
Nicholas: Nicholas... I'm Dr. Nicholas Garrigan. I work at the medical compound in Mgambo. I'm a doctor.
Amin: You are British.
(Credit to professor-x-student @ tumblr)
Nicholas: Brit... Uh, well, I'm Scottish.
(Credit to iwenttofilmschool @ tumblr)
Amin: Scottish? Why didn't you say so? I fought with the Scots against the Mau Mau. Great soldiers. Very brave. And good people. Completely. Let me tell you, if I could be anything instead of a Ugandan, I would be a Scot, my friend.
Nicholas: Right. Really?
Amin: Except for the red hair... which I'm sure is attractive to your women... but which we Africans... We find this quite disgusting. Thank you, Dr. Garrigan. A very good job. Hey, please. Would you let me have this T-shirt? My son, Campbell, he would love this T-shirt.
Nicholas: You've got a son called Campbell?
Amin: Yeah. Maybe you would take my shirt here in exchange.
Nicholas: Right. Of course. Yeah.
Amin: Aha. You see? Now you are a general, like me. Salute, please.
Nicholas: Oh.
Amin: Now I must leave.
In their first encounter, and also the first treatment, Amin has already teased his appearance and made Nicholas strip for him.
Also, the intense glances Amin throws to Nicholas during bandaging and Nicholas's admiration to Amin's charisma are the indication of the bonding between them.
The "love at first sight" and the shirt exchange in this scene reminds me of the armor/tunic exchange between David and Jonathan in Sam 18:3-4 in Bible.
Please note that the characters behaviors in the remained movie take no resemblance to the biblical events.
However, the shout out of their mutual fondness and intimacy, even the prompt of pederasty, is very much noticable .
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The next morning, the Minister of Health is sent to Nicholas clinic to bring Nicholas to the President House in the presidential limousine. O_O
Now we know that Amin had probably thought about Nicholas all night long so he would send his minister to take the doctor in such an early morning.
Nicholas looks like a Cinderella riding on his pumpkin carriage to the palace.
He meets Amin and is taken back by the offer to be his personal physician and have a hand in creating a new health service for the country.
(gif credit to passrevoked @ tumblr)
Nicholas turns down the job offer twice so the president apologizes for wasting his time and promises to take Nicholas back to the village first thing in the morning,
but first he must attend tonight's State dinner. Then he sends him to a trailor for a suit and covers the bill.
At the State dinner, Amin introduces Nicholas as "his good friend" and the doctor "saved his life" to his wives and colleagues.
Basically, Amin is like dragging his little white pet around and showing him off to everyone, like
"See? He is my new white bitch. Look at him! Pretty. Right? Jealous much?"
Personally I think the interracial and the physical difference erotize Amin's affection to Nicholas.
British High Commisioner: So, uh, Dr. Garrigan, we've been hearing all sorts of things about you.
British Dipolmat: Yes, I... I gather the president has clasped you to his bosom.
Note that despite Amin had only known Nicholas for, at most, two days, the british commission already heard about him and the favor he got from the president.
It means either Amin talked about the boy he just met with the commision, or the dipolmat already assumed something is going on between them.
The Second Treatment:
That night, Nicolas is summoned to Amin's bedroom because the president is suffering from a severe stomachache. What's with the glance again?
When Nicholas helps him to release a large amount of gas in the stomach, Amin says he is ashamed that Nicholas has seen him like that, and his fear of dying.
But the doctor reassures confidentiality due to the doctor's oath so Amin opens up his heart and tells Nicolas about his harsh childhood.
The second treatment, Amin invites Nicholes to his bedroom, and allows him to get on his smooth silky sheet, exchanges glances with him while panting and moaning in pain.
Amin shows his trust despite the posture of them during the treatment is absolutely intimate and arousing.
At the end, Amin opens up to Nicholes and they share a secret.
(gif credit to passrevoked @ tumblr)
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Next day, Nicholas accepts the job offer and now he is living in an apartment inside the presidential compound.
The Minister of Health shows him around the presidential hospital and there, Nicholas meets that british dipolmat again.
British Diplomat: Well, given that we were so... intimately involved with the president coming to... power... the Foreign Office has asked me to point out our awareness... of your very unique personal relationship with President Amin.
Nicholas: Mm-hmm?
British Diplomat: Should you find the need to clarify your status... regarding the details of that relationship... we would of course welcome any clarification you might... feel the need to share with us.
"Very unique personal relationship" smells fishier than a normal business engagement.
The Foreign Office knows that Amin to Nicholas are more like a sugar daddy to his boytoy.
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Amin takes Nicolas everywhere, including his luxury social and family events, except outside of Uganda.
Very soon Nicholas is more than Amin's personal physician but also his closest advisor, something Amin says many times in front of senior officers. One day:
Amin: Before I forget, I need to ask a favor.
Nicholas: Anything.
Amin: I will be in Libya next week, and I need you to attend a meeting in my place.
Nicholas: What kind of meeting?
Amin: A simple matter of taste and common sense. I cannot think of anyone better than you.
In the meeting, the attendees are surprised that Nicholas is a doctor and Nicholas is surprised to learn the attendees are important contractors from the foreign consulates.
The meeting is to bid for construction contracts. O_O
Amin: I love it. Good choice. Modern, elegant. A symbol of Uganda's future. Here is where we will have the next Pan-African Congress.
[...]
Amin: Look what Nicholas has designed for me.
Nicholas: I didn't design anything.
Amin: That's nonsense. You have a wonderful eye.
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The Third Treatment:
To reward Nicolas for saving his epliptic son, Amin gives him a brand new silver Mercedes convertible in one morning and asks him to drive him to the airport for a business trip.
When Nicholas goes back to his apartment to dress, Amin follows him into his room. O_O
...
Nicholas hesitates a bit. He strips nevertheless when he realizes Amin shows no signs of leaving.
(Credit to daka-el @ tumblr)
It happens after Nicholas giving his third treatment and is the second time Nicholas has to strip in front of Amin under his command.
Unlike the first time which Amin has taken off his own general uniform to achieve a sense of equality, Nicholas is much more vulnuable here because he has to be completely naked under watching by a fully dressed man.
This scene is important as it shows Amin is starting to cross the personal-space border and how trusting Nicholas is to Amin.
Oh by the way Nicholas wears no underpant and Amin is aware of it too!
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Some time later Nicholas is in Amin's office having him sign papers for supplies for the hospital.
Nicholas pillow talks snitches Amin that he has seen the Health Minister privately talking to a strange white man.
Later, we know that Nicholas is quite aware the possible consequences of the minister, despite death is not the one he predicts.
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Soon Nicholas discovers that the health minister is probably murdered by Amin.
Panicked, he comes to Amin's and announces to go home.
Amin: Nicholas. My Nicholas. What is all this about your going home? Hmm?
Nicholas: We... You once told me that you respected me... 'cause I wasn't afraid to speak my mind.
Amin: Mmm. Speak.
Nicholas: It's this business with Wasswa. I can't. It fucking stinks. I can't help coming back to that moment when I asked you to talk to him. This isn't me. I have to go home now.
Amin: You cannot.
Nicholas: What?
Amin: Your work is not finished here yet.
Nicholas: But I didn't come here to finish anything.
Amin: You promised to me you would help me build a new Uganda. You swore an oath.
Nicholas: The oath is... it's a doctor's oath of confidentiallity; we all take it. It's got nothing to do with Uganda.
Amin: Huh? Nothing? Nothing comes from nothing. You have a conscience, I know you do. That is why you came here in the first place. Or are you like all the other British. Just here to fuck and to take away?
Nicholas: No.
Amin: No? Why else would I trust you with my family? You are like my own son.
Nicholas: My name is Nicholas Garrigan, and I'm from Scotland. This is my home. I want to...
Amin: Your home... is here.
Nicholas: Please. Just, please.
Amin: Do not be a silly boy. If you go now, what will they think about you and, Jonah Wasswa?
Nicholas: What are you talkin' about? I said talk to him.
Amin: Do not pretend to yourself that you did not know. You are a stronger man than that.
Nicholas: I didn't want him to die though.
Amin: But you did it. Why? You want to know why?
Nicholas: Yes.
Amin: You did it because you love me.
(Credit to passrevoked @ tumblr)
Nicholas looks shocked at the "you love me" statement rather than opposing and horrified by Amin's affection to him.
He looks more like "Is... is this 'love'? Am...am I in love with him?" rather than in denial.
Amin: You have stepped deep into the heart of my country. Uganda. Uganda embraces you. Nicholas. Nicholas. What you need is to have some fun.
And as I mentioned before, the relationship between Amin and Nicholas is Plato's approved "pederasty", which can be applied to the love affair of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas.
Amin said "You are like my own son." (Wilde used to call Bosie "my child" in his letter)
Amin, as an elder and a upper-class, takes care of Nicholas, who has no support in Uganda, just like how the ancient Greek males institutional and economic authorize those free-born younger boys.
The individuals in such relationship would also marry with women and have children.
As the ancients regarded females as a lower class and a breeder, only the love between two males could pass knowledge and virtue.
As we know, Amin introduced his wives by stating the number of children they gave him. Also, as Kay revealed, Amin only came to her house to see the children, not her.
We know that Amin does not love these women but only sees them as a breeding tool. Who he is truly enchanted, passionate and possessive with is Nicholas.
All these parallel with a pederastic relationship.
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Amin throws a party with go-go dancers to cheer Nicolas up.
However, Nicholas is still depressed that he evenually gets drunk and starts an affair with one of the president's wives, Kay (starring Kerry Washington).
When Kay warns him for Amin's temper and advises him to leave Uganda as soon as possible, Nicholas answered "He still listen to me."
To his innocence Nicholas still not realizes that the father-to-son prossessiveness has actually become a nightmare of "house arrest".
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The following day, Nicholas finds out his apartment is completely ransacked.
The most importantly, his Scottish passport is gone but a new Ugandan passport with his picture is left there.
Trapped, Nicholas and Kay stick to seek comfort with each other.
Later, Kay finds out that she is pregnant with Nicholas' child and begs him for an abortion.
Nicholas and Kay, as the companions (more like a trophy) to Amin, both feel sordid, imprisoned and victimized under Amin's power.
Their sexual and psychological comfort is a rebel to Amin and a symbol of freedom, which I find is very comparable with lesbianism or feminism, which is often regard as a resistance to the male domination.
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The Forth Treatment:
Meanwhile, Amin summons and hysterically blames Nicholas for not warning him not to throw the Asians out of Uganda, which Nicolas furiously clarifies that he did.
Then Amin throws back:
Amin: But you did not persuade me, Nicholas. You did not persuade me!
Amin asks Nicholas what to do so so Nichlas advises him no meet the journalists and charm them. Then Amin turns 180 and pets Nicholas happily on the back.
Amin: Thank you. Thank you very much, Nicholas. What would I do without my Nicholas, huh? What would I do without my Nicholas?
Amin: *grabbing Nicholas face* Is there something going on here? Huh?
Nicholas: No. No. No.
Amin: Is there?
Nicholas: No.
Amin: Huh?
Nicholas: No.
Amin: Are you sure, Nicholas?
Nichlas: Yes. Yes.
Amin evenually lets go of Nicholas face but refuses his absence until the press conference.
This is the forth times Amin calls up Nicholas for clinical reasons (a complain of headach, insonmia and a request for a booster shot), but ends up with Amin interrupting Nicholas' personal space and inferring Nicholas' unfaithfulness.
XXX Warning: Very disturbing images ahead
Later, Nicholas finds out that Kay had gone to the hospital due to complication of back-alley abortion. Entering the morgue he finds Kay's dismembered body. Her legs have been sewn on in place of her arms and her arms sewn on in place of her legs. Her son is in the same room.
Nicholas cries over Kay's body and vomits.
XXX
The Last Treatment:
Nicholas decides to poison the brutal president.
He goes to Amin is groomily watching porn with his goons when he gives him the "headache" medicine.
Amin: They say she has a clitoris halfway down her throat. Is this possible... medically?
Nicholas: Oh, yeah. Almost all aberrations of nature are possible.
Amin: I made an example of her because she betrayed me.
Nicholas: I brought you those headache pills that you asked for.
Amin: Good. Is there anything else?
Nicholas: No. No, that's all.
Amin: Then go. We are busy here.
Nicholas rushes out but only brought back inside to Amin, who now become gleeful.
Amin: Nicholas, there you are! Were you trying to run away from me?
Nicholas: No. No.
Amin: Huh?
Nicholas: No.
The fifth time Nicholas is just deliving the medicine. This scene could have been less suggestive but as the director decided to have Amin watching porn while waiting for his Nicholas, it is loaded with aphrodisis at once.
Amin in this scene is obviously upset and beset by the adultery between his favorite advisor and the ill-omened wife he disregarded. He brutally dismembers the betrayed wife but he does not pulish Nicholas, only shows him a bloody warning and gives him another chance.
On the other hand, Nicholas implies that "aberrations", the act of departing from the right and the deviation from truth or moral rectitude, such as betrayal, is always possible to happen.
XXX Warning disturbing images ahead
When the goons confirm that the medicine is actually poison, they beat Nicholas badly and drag him to see Amin.
Amin: Look at you. Is there one thing you have done that is good? Did you think this was all a game? 'I will go to Africa and I will play the white man with the natives.' Is that what you thought? We are not a game, Nicholas. We are real. This room here, it is real. I think your death will be the first real thing that has happened to you.
Amin: Listen to me, Nicholas. Listen. I know. Yes. I know about you and Kay. How could you do that to me? I am the father of this nation, Nicholas. And you have most grossly offended your father.
Nicholas: You're a child. That's what makes you so fucking scary.
Amin: In my village when you steal the wife of an elder they take you to a tree and they hang you by your skin. Each time you scream the evil comes out of you. Sometimes it can take three days for your evil to be spent. Pull him up.
The goons bring ropes and two hooks. Holding Nicholas up they proceed to pierce his nipples with the hooks while Nicholas is looking straight into Amin's eyes, refusing to scream.
Nicholas is strung up and hangs from the ceiling by his skin. He never scream until he pass out.
Amin watches, looking genuinely heartbroken and sheds a tear before he leaves.
(Credit to apredereve @ tumblr)
Note that Nicholas is accussed of assasination but Amin pulishes him for adultery.
Also, Amin has never ordered to kill Nicholas.
In fact, the goons take Nicholas' deadly body down after awhile instead of hanging there for three days.
The wounds on Nicholas chest is very severe but not fatal. They are healable if given adequate care and recovery time.
After all the betrayal Amin still has mercy to his Nicholas, he really loves this boy in his own way.
Since Amin would not let go of Nicholas, I would not be surprised at all if he decides to enslave and assault Nicholas for life. Dr. Junju you cockblock!
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Truth is, if you have watched the deleted scenes, you will know that the original script had Nicholas treating Amin Syphilis before being asked to represent the president in the construction bid meeting.
No doubt the script is leading us to associate their every treatment with sexual relations.
Also, after Nicholas shagged Kay for the first time in the party, Amin told him that they had just become "brother" because his custom said so when two men had slept with the same woman.
Amin was not referring to Kay but the go-go dancer he arranged for Nicholas. It means Amin had purposely planned to strengthen his bond with Nicholas in a sexual aspect.
If you have noticed, there are quite a few shots that focus on Nicholas' pasty white body, some especially on his thigh and crotch.
Aside from the pantless scenes I displayed above, there are:
(deleted scene)
Seriously, this movie is mainly about the romance of a king and his foreign concubine. If James was not a little-known rising actor at that time, he must had shipped Amin/Nicholas like he ships Erik/Charles in X-Men: First Class now.
The significant of Scotland
It interests me that Nicholas has distinguished his Scottish ancestry from the British thoughout the movie.
Amin is also very fond of Scottish and titles himself "the last king of Scotland".
Journalist: It's been reported that you've crowned yourself "the last king of Scotland".
Amin: Yes. My good friends, the Scottish people have seen how I have defeated the English here and they want me to do the same for them there.
Now we know he sees in Scottish devolutionary ambition a parallel to Africa's own struggle against the English and announces since he has successfully defeated the British, he will do the same for Scotland and hence he will be their king.
James McAvoy also explained the emphasis of the role of Scotland in this movie:
"I’m extremely proud to be Scottish. I like the fact that we’re glorious in defeat. We can take a beating and come out with most amazing, poetic and musical playing. We really do get defeated gloriously. We play amazing stuff in defeat every single time. That’s being Scottish. That’s why it’s important for the Western audience that the protagonist of this film is Scottish.
I’m Scottish and I come from a tribal system. I started there. Then I am chosen by the English and so I’m British because I’m conquered. I’ve been raped. I’ve been pillaged and there’s been hundreds of years of that. It’s only in the last 300 years that we’ve not been getting completely pummelled.
So I go into this and I am white and I am from the West and from an economically powerful country - but I am different. I get you. I get your suffering and I won’t treat you like everyone else. I will have more respect. That’s why the film benefits from making Garrigan Scottish."
The White Attitude
I think the movie tells the truth that most of the people from developed countries (including me) regard the situation of the third-world as a tragic story or an adventure, without real feeling to their suffering because we don't know.
Even though some people may travel there temporary for charity or volenteer work, they still don't know because unlike the locals, the travelers always have a choice to go home, go back to their wealthy life at the end.
By taking the freedom away from the character Nicholas, the audience can hopefully experience the despair and powerless of the people in Africa as well as other political unstable countries.
Credit to
The Last King Of Scotland Quotes for the transcription
James McAvoy Central for the screencaps
Forest can clamp James to his blosm with one arm. I love their size difference.