The Last King of Scotland

Released: 2006
Drama
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Gillian Anderson
Running Time: 121 minutes
Rated: R

The breakdown: Uganda president Idi Amin in the 1970's meets Nicholas Garrigan in the jungle and decides to make him his personal physician.  Idi Amin and the events in Uganda are real, but Nicholas Garrigan is not a real person.  It's half real, half fiction.

Dr. Nicholas Garrigan moves to Uganda at the beginning of the film to escape his father.  He's just graduated from school and is on a mission to help the local people of the countryside who would otherwise not seek medical help.  While out in the jungle one day he runs into the new president, Idi Amin.  Amin decides to take Garrigan as his personal doctor, but Nicholas has no idea what he's gotten himself into.
Idi Amin over the course of his rule murdered 300,000 of his own people.  He's intimidating, dangerous, and a power hungry thug.  Nicholas soon learns about his new friend in terrible ways and when he wants to leave, he is not allowed to simply walk out.

The biography of Amin is a terrifying thing to watch as he was a horrible human being and a mass murderer, killing innocent people all over the country.  The relationship between Dr. Garrigan and Amin is tense, and you're constantly hoping Garrigan doesn't do something that will get him killed.

It's a fantastic movie with great acting and intense drama.

Watch it.
5 out of 5 for a compelling story that's hard to look away from.