House of Saddam (2008)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Disappointing Continuation

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Pros: Philip Arditti plays his role very well and has similar physical looks. Start of how Saddam terrorized Iraq goes well with truth. Cons:Shohreh Aghdashloo (who plays Saddam wife) does not match the role; Sheher has some graceful looks; while the real Sajida Saddam was a chubby, Bedouin woman who struggled all her life to remove her trademark of no style and no taste(see her on google image and judge by yourself). Movie hides two turning points in Saddam life: One is after 1990 (liberation of Kuwait by US); Saddam committed mass graves burring about 400,000 Shiite Muslims, most of them buried alive. So far only 250 000 corpse found and they keep finding. Second missing fact that Uday; the playboy son of Saddam was shot by opposition on 1996 causing him to lose ability to walk; and lost his manhood(his Johnson was cut by a bullet). This caused a lot of problems inside Saddam family due to jealousy the grew against his young brother Qusay; who was being groomed to succeed his father. The film also draws a totally opposite picture of Saddam wife(Sajida) real character. She hated high class women (due to her low class family) and destroyed many of the well known Baghdad families. She was not the helpless abused wife and the movie shows.She was a gem hunter; touring the world buying diamonds and jewellery. Film misrepresented the real character of Saddam son in law (Hussein Kamel) who escaped to Jordan. Hussein Kamel was known in Iraq as being blood thirsty; low rank policeman who did everything to prove to Saddam that he was a ruthless aide to rely on. Part 3 did not reveal the truth why US reinstalled Saddam after liberating Kuwait in 1990 although he lost control of 15 provinces out of 18 in Iraq. A real writer should make 8 or 10 episodes about Saddam showing the shocking facts starting from the 50's when he was a student & agent of CIA in Cairo; until they helped him takeover in 1968. To show some facts and hide others is misguiding.

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.

"House of Saddam" is a simply splendid miniseries. I have a cursory knowledge of Iraq and Saddam but this series confirmed what I knew and also illustrated new facts. The acting was amazing from everyone, particularly the actors who played Saddam and Uday - very scary and extremely convincing.The only complaint I would have is that the last two episodes, particularly the very last one, dragged a little bit (I honestly became uninterested in Saddam after he was removed from power), though I appreciated that the series wanted to be timely and show the American invasion of Iraq. Also, I felt that each of the four parts jumped around a little bit too much and that I was more interested in the story of Saddam's immediate family rather than the story of Saddam's sons-in-law (though I'm sure their story was important).All in all, this was an amazingly well-done mini-series on a fascinating topic. I will definitely be watching these actors and seeing where all they go in the future.

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?