Uncle Saddam (2000)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Joel Soler

Writer:

Scott Thompson (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy | History | War

Tagline:

Everything you've ever wanted to know about Saddam Hussein (but were afraid to ask).

Plot Keywords:

Building Construction | Kuwait | Father Son Relationship | Murder | Megalomania

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Qusay Hussein	...	Himself (youngest son of Saddam Hussein) (archive footage)
Saddam Hussein	...	Himself
Uday Hussein	...	Himself (eldest son of Saddam Hussein) (archive footage)
Wallace Langham	...	Narrator (voice)

Runtime:

USA:63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Babilon Ruins, Iraq

Company:

Rive Gauche International Television

Trivia:

The film was compiled from footage the director smuggled out of Iraq during a visit there on the pretext of chronicling the nation's suffering under U.N. sanctions. The director has received death threats from the Iraqi government following the film's completion.

Soundtrack:

Bigger Than Life

Report from an era that is no more.

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?