Kirpianuscus
to define this film is only a problem of choice. to select the historical accuracy or the artistic virtues. because are two different aspects. and this is not real surprising. to give a good show, the sacrifice of truth, with its not comfortable aspects about earl years of Hussein regime must be ignored. for give a seductive story, the perfect model is the historical plays of Shakespeare. to impose a great show, to use the white and black impose to ignore the nuances. result - a film about power and about corruption, crimes and comfortable personal life - with few small storms - of a dictator. a chronicle of family who could be more a parable than a docudrama.
Malik Taufiq - ur - Rehman Awan
the words for praising this masterpiece will be less everything was perfect right from the cast to the technicalities behind the camera performances good cinematography, set design, background score everything was too good. the minor things were taken care but the evilness in the saddam hussein personality was not explored much and few things were not mentioned i.e. chemical bomb on the kurd and shia and during the war in kuwait he address to the entire world and especially USA that my people can survive on dates and water even if the entire world boycott usotherwise their was no flaw in filming.rating 4 out of 5
gray4
This four-part mini-series grips you from the outset. Yigal Naor's portrayal of the young Saddam is brilliant, seizing power brutally but always with a purpose behind his brutality. This contrasts with the mindless, purposeless brutality of his elder son Uday (Philip Arditti), which comes through in the 2nd and 3rd episodes.The mini-series' structure, taking four key years in Saddam's life over 24 years, is managed extremely effectively, although one consequence is that some of the best-known incidents of his reign of terror have to be omitted.The character of each family member develops across the episodes and the overall sense of an all-pervading reign of terror comes over very powerfully.My main criticism is of the final episode, almost elegiac with a mellow Saddam on the run with a consequent loss of tension and momentum. Although I suppose that, as we all know what happened to him right from the start, this is probably inevitable. But well worth watching and superbly acted by everyone.
james-948
This is brilliant, absolutely fantastic. Since the war (2003) I've been fascinated with history of Iraq and the story of Saddam and this is a truly great dramatisation from what i've researched.It's everything I expected and more. Great cast, gripping story and fantastic score!My only criticism is some of the smaller roles / characters acting is a little cheap, and the last scene from eps. 2 was a little cheesy "this is my county!", was good up until then.I hate to say it, as it clearly isn't the case, but the acting is good, gives a human edge to the story, almost empathetic, but then you soon remember how brutal he was - a true madman.Nothing like Uday Hussein, words cant explain his evilness.On a separate note, any ideas who composed the score?
AD
