The Last King of Scotland (2006 Film) Kevin Macdonald

Critical response

The Last King of Scotland has an approval rating of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 185 reviews, with an average score of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Forest Whitaker's performance as real-life megalomaniac dictator Idi Amin powers this fictionalized political thriller, a blunt and brutal tale about power and corruption".[13] At Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14]

Accolades

Whitaker won in the leading actor category at the Academy Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Whitaker also won awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association, the National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics' Circle, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, and many other critics awards, for a total of at least 23 major awards, with at least one more nominations.

As of 2022, Whitaker from The Last King of Scotland and Helen Mirren from The Queen are the only two lead performances for portraying real-life leaders, and is the only lead actor to ever sweep the rarest achievements known as "The Big Four" critics awards (LAFCA, NBR, NYFCC, NSFC) as well as win the Oscar, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG awards in the same year.

The film was received well in Uganda, where it premiered two days before Whitaker won the Academy Award.[15]