House of Saddam (2008)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"House of Saddam" covers a quarter century of the Iraqi dictator's ruthless rule over his people. The filmmakers play it straight: they depict the political and historical developments the way Saddam was believed to have viewed them--that Kuwait was unfair and foolish to have increased oil production in the late 1980s/early 1990s, that the Iraqi government believed it had received private assurances from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq that Americans would not interfere with an Iraqi-Kuwaiti conflict, and that Iraq was a world hero standing alone athwart the frightening menace of post-revolutionary Iran.Although the film lets Saddam Hussein speak for himself without interjecting serious voices of political opposition, the mini-series does not excuse or minimize Saddam's villainy or extreme paranoia. Saddam murders his enemies, and at times renders even shabbier treatment to those closest to him. Saddam kills his best friend to demonstrate his ability to be tough. Saddam cashiers his own half brother, head of his personal security, in favor of an ambitious ruffian from Saddam's father's family. He arranged the murder of his wife's brother and his daughters' husbands.What gives "House of Saddam" panache is the luxurious production values, the soapy melodrama of the family (Uday's serial addictions, Saddam's love affair with his future second wife, the plucky austerity of Saddam's mother), and casting actors who are sexier and more stylish than the real people they played. This is how history should be told—with personality and flare.

This is a well made, well acted superb production as a series, but it really fails to tell the truth about Saddam's connection with the United States. Once again we have Hollywood deciding what stays in and what stays out and this series makes Saddam to be a something from Shakespeare's "King Lear" and it is utter non-sense. I was surprised and very disappointed since this was made by the BBC and they usually get things right?. I guess when HBO joined in things got changed?. This series never delved into the US role in backing Saddam's regime early, and later backing him to fight Iran by supplying him with Bombs to Bomb Iran for almost 8 years. Killing all the women and children with Chemicals that came from US. This is well known documented FACT and part of the US history but I guess it is easier to make someone else to be the Monster like Saddam.They didn't show one scene with Tariq Aziz in the White House with Bush senior and Regan when they were making all the arm deal to Bomb Iran and later the same US Govt made Saddam to be the monster. This was covered by the PBS on Frontline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gunning/there was real footage showing Tariq Aziz in the White house and meeting with Regan and Bush all smiles when they were shipping arms to Iraq to bomb Iran and that part of history is somehow OK by HBO and BBC to decided what part of History is made into this fabricated fantasy of Saddam? Hollywood makes it's own history of Saddam and the sad part is for the most part the general public, and mostly Americans whom can not name their own presidents or have very little knowledge of their own history and yet sit back and watch this crap and then write reviews on this site as it to be some amazing series to depict someone like Saddam?.I encourage you people to log into sites http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/and watch the truth about your own history about Iraq and Saddam and US.

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.

house of Saddam is a short series on the life of Saddam Hussein and his family and the friends near him. for people interested in the life oh Saddam and the happenings in Iraq during his regime its a must watch. well shot and directed. i will give it a 9 out of 10. nothing has been made like it before.the film starts from his regime in 1979. how he took over the Iraq presidential seat. it follows through the gulf war and later Kuwait incidents and finally his bringing down. it sheds light on how it was a jungles law out there for his family. the actors have done justice to their rules especially noar has pulled a great performance. all in all a good series to watch especially for the people who have been there in his regime. they can feel it for sure