Holy...

Okay, I admit it. I'm not a perfect Mormon. (Let's be honest, though, unless you're a Molly or a Peter, who is?) I've watched a number of rated R movies. For the most part, I'll avoid them, but there are some that warrant watching. (I don't care who you are, The King's Speech is a phenomenal movie. And watching it edited would be simply stupid.)

Going along with the whole James McAvoy obsession, I watched one of his R movies last night. From everything that I had read it about it, it sounded like it was a rather under-appreciated movie and I've always had a thing for under-appreciated movies. (Though... really, most of James McAvoy's movies are under-appreciated...) Plus, it was based on a true story and those are always interesting.

"The Last King of Scotland".

Okay, so here's why it's rated R: there's a sex scene and a half. The movie could've definitely done without those scenes (as all movies with sex scenes could). There were quite a number of bare breasts in traditional African style (though, not like "The Gods Must Be Crazy" bare breasts: these were nice, round healthy looking boobs). That didn't bother me, partially because it takes place in Uganda and partially because... I don't know, boobs don't bother me? :P Oh, and they drop the f-bomb quite a few times. Not as many as, say, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (another phenomenal movie), but still. Also, you get a brief glimpse of James' genitals. Which was completely and totally unnecessary and actually rather ticked me off.

Despite this, however, it definitely needed to be rated R. And I'm glad that they didn't try to tone these other parts down, because it very much would have diminished the power of the movie.

There were two scenes in particular. The first, you see a dead body that has... had gruesome things done to it. The second, a character is tortured. Very realistically. As in, I am beyond curious to know how they pulled that off but at the same time, I don't want to know because I'm afraid it'll ruin the power of the scene for me.

And, brilliant me, I watched it late at night. So I went to sleep absolutely terrified. I would submit that something like this is more terrifying than one of those horror or suspense movies... Because this was based on a true story. This actually happened. There are actually people like this out in the real world. In the words of James McAvoy's character, Nicholas Garrigan (edited slightly for those who don't watch R no matter what):

"You're a child. You have the mind and ego of an angry, spoiled, uneducated child. And that's what makes you so incredibly scary."

I want to watch it again. It was that good. But I'm also scared of watching it again. I probably will watch it again eventually, it'll just... take me a while to bring myself to.

If you have the stomach for it, I would definitely recommend it. "The Last King of Scotland". Just... be prepared.