House of Saddam

in fact , am watching this drama and writing in the same time. i couldn't wait me and my husband for this to start , we are iraqi and we lived most of our lives under Saddam's regime , this is a good drama about Saddam , it starts when he came to power in 79 , so scary , so unpredictable as he always used to be , we watched him on TV , lived in a country ruled by him , and in this series i am remembering my childhood , and my life in Iraq, i believe this drama is so real offcourse except for the language which is Arabic in reality ,all characters resemble the real ones , with the music and all.

i'll give it 9 starts.

Imagine a a miniseries where you know the ending . Wouldn't that mean there's a lack of suspense ? You know the ending therefore there's little reason to watch . We all know what happened to Saddam Hussain so it says a lot that within a few short minutes of watching this show I was totally intrigued and hooked by it

The production team knows the audience will know the ultimate outcome of this chronicle so concentrate on the dramatic aspects of Saddam's time in power . The first episode concentrates on his ascent to power by liquidating his rivals on trumped up charges of " counter revolutionary activities " and waging a war against his Persian neighbours . The second episode introduces his two sons who were every bit as bad as him if not worst and shows the results of his doomed escapade in Kuwait . The third episode shows his genius of brinkmanship and political machinations while the final episode shows the dictator as a fugitive on the run

Some critics have expressed disappointment in that some aspects are skated over too quickly while others say the ordinary sufferings of the ordinary Iraqi people are ignored . There's some truth to this but again the the producers have quite rightly ignored scope and concentrated on well written drama superbly acted by an unknown cast . I've never heard of Yigal Naor or Philip Arditti but they both give superb performances and I look forward to this series picking up a few awards at the more prestigious award ceremonis

Next to Hitler or Stalin, no modern figure has been as vilified as Saddam Hussein. And with the Iraqi despot's atrocities so well known and oft-repeated, it becomes easy to forget that there was a flesh-and-bones man behind the monster.

What makes HOUSE OF SADDAM so compelling is its humanization of the title character. Yigal Naor delivers a subdued brilliance as Saddam, developing the character over a 27-year elapsed period that begins with his ascension to power and ends with his hanging. Naor brings Saddam to the screen without bias. He's as convincing with Saddam the caring family man as he is with Saddam the cold-hearted executioner.

Producers of this four-hour miniseries faced the same challenge as those who have brought other notable world figures to film: what hits the screen and what stays on the cutting room floor? The choice here was to shed light on a quartet of important eras in Saddam's life: his rise to power, his war with Iran, his invasion of Kuwait and his evasion of US forces after the fall of his government. This approach is not perfect - it would have been fascinating to see the final chapter focus more on the process that led to Saddam's fall - but it works well nevertheless.

A rich back story, with emphasis on unstable sons Uday (an amazing Philip Arditti) and Qusay (Mounir Margoum), helps flesh out the story of a complex man in a complex situation. At times the film feels like THE SOPRANOS, with loyalties constantly questioned and bullets planted in the heads of recusants. Given that there is so much about Saddam we will never know, some dramatic license was taken, but none of it screams of pure fiction.

HOUSE OF SADDAM sheds important light on a man whose impact on the world was as devastating as it was profound. With no political agenda, it makes for irresistible viewing.

Lets set aside for a moment the acting and production value of this series, which really was good. However Saddam Hussein was known as " The Butcher of Baghdad" for a reason. This series does not address at all, the murder of tens or by some estimates hundreds of thousands of people on his explicit orders. He used chemical weapons on the Kurds, murdering over 3k men, women, and children, at Halabja, tortured countless thousands in his secret prisons, and demanded video tapes of his so called "internal enemies" being tortured in unimaginable ways. These video's exist for all to see with just a few clicks on the keyboard. Its a shame HBO produced this video in an overt attempt to further the left's narative that the U.S. went and over seas and meddled in the affairs of this quiet little country that was involved in a " arab vs. arab" affair. The truth Saddam Hussein was another dictator holding his 27 million inhabitants hostage, and subjecting thhem to a life of fearful living from Saddam, his psychotic sons (both), and his force of hundreds of thousands of secret police. They barely address the mass graves found full of his victims. If you want to kno w the truth about Iraq, during Saddam Hussein's reign of terror, the information is out there. But you got nothing but politcal spin here." Sweet Baba", and gentle soul my eye!!

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.