Uncle Saddam (2000)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Thanks for the memories!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Saddam, (Which is the Australian title) was quite a good insight into this psychopath and his rule.It didn't make rethink my opposition to the Iraq war but rather, why the hell did the West support this guy in the first place.The director has done a good job at letting us see how Saddam ran the country into the ground but fails mention how he got the money and the weapons which he used in his atrocities. But then again that isn't the point of the movie.For those who think Bush is a freedom loving person either don't know or care that he is overlooking similar human rights violations occur in Uzebekistan as it has become an ally in the War on terror.

Uncle Saddam (just called "Saddam" here) gives a feel for what it was like to be around the man and what sort of a man this Saddam Hussein was, what he did inside the unfair system of dictatorship with checks and balances absent. This documentary doesn't concentrate a lot on events and history, more on people and places.Saddam seems to be more of a small-time dictator as his country had only 20 million people and the economy wasn't in terribly good shape (I hope it doesn't sound too political to mention the embargoes). The gassing of the Kurds happened in a region under the administration of an ex-taxi driver cousin of Saddam's, who earned the nickname of "Chemical Ali" for his fascination with chemical warfare.Saddam comes across as more of a friendly but highly negligent uncle to his people, at least he acknowledged questions as to why he was building a multi-million dollar resort town in the middle of the desert when the money could be better spent on food and hospitals (although he gave a b_llshit answer).What surprised me the most was the amount of enemies he had put under house arrest when he could have easily done as other dictators do and have them killed. Perhaps he just wasn't that bothered by former members of his inner circle saying bad things about him internationally.I think Saddam's greatest crime was putting himself before his country, I think he enjoyed the perks of being dictator too much and did his country and his people a lot of harm (although it seems in the early days he was fairly active in improving the country).In a post-2003 sense the documentary argues a good case as to the pointlessness of starting the Iraq War just to remove this individual. It seems like a pretty steep price to pay. I do wonder what happened to all those interesting (and expensive) buildings Saddam had his architect design and build, are they all rubble or are they in use by the US army or journalists today?

I cannot recommend this documentary enough. Anyone who has doubts about Operation Iraqi Freedom should try and view this film if only to see Saddam Hussein in his element. You begin to understand the meglomania and psychosis of this ruthless tyrant.Particularly eye-opening are the opulent lifestyle and architectural and artistic excesses of this man who built billions of dollars worth of palaces for himself and his close followers and let his people suffer and die. His systematic placement and subsequent elimination of family members in places of power is a symptom of his paranoid delusion and cheek of his murderous schemes would astonish medieval king. It becomes clear that the Baathist/marxist policies of Saddam do nothing to elevate the lives of the average Iraqi and merely spread the misery equally among anyone outside Saddam's circle of influence in Iraq. Particularly weird are Saddam's discourse on body odor and bathing.

The subject matter avoids Saddam's rise to power, which was covered quite well by Frontline. The focus instead is on Saddam "the man", his family, his wealth, and his megalomania in general. The images of Saddam's palaces, museums and other shrines juxtapose chillingly with those of children in hospitals and Saddam's torture victims. We also see how Saddam has turned his presidency into a virtual monarchy, (rather than a Hitler-style dictatorship) complete with royal family intrigue as family members come into and lose -- sometimes painfully -- power and influence within the regime. The tongue in cheek narration gives this documentary a strange feel, more sarcastic than ironic, which I am not sure was the best way to present this material. Saddam will no doubt receive his wish and be remembered throughout history (alongside similar monsters like Nero, Pol Pot, Stalin, Catherine di Medici and others).