Just got a chance to see The Devil's Double, great movie! As the first of it's kind I think that they did well, being Iraqi myself ( I left in the early 90's) I find it quite accurate, I can tell it wasn't actually filmed in Baghdad but then who really wants to go there!? For so long I've listened to critics here in the US saying the movie is too flashy or over the top but I lived in Baghdad during that time, believe me we were more O.T.T than that! Iraq in the '80's had everything you could want, night clubs, bars, the best hotels in the world, Sheraton, Le Meridien etc, think of Dubai now, that was Baghdad then. Anyway, I was an officer in a special unit in the palace. So I saw a lot of stuff, it was an open secret that Uday had a double, just like President Saddam Hussein. It makes me laugh when there's controversy after 20 years about whether Latif Yahia's story is true or not, I wonder who they're asking for an opinion, some guy who left Iraq when he was three and has never been to the middle-east let alone Iraq! Or worse still the men who Uday used to call 'friends', it's of no importance really, Iraq as we knew it is gone, President Saddam is dead. Watch and enjoy, historically accurate or not it's one hell of a ride! Oh yeah, if you've ever watched any interview of the real Latif Yahia, that's what Uday sounded like, not as squeaky as they make him out to be in the movie. To capture Uday's brutality they would have had to dial it up a notch or twelve, I had the displeasure of seeing him in action in reality. We had a job to do, pretending we weren't there. Does it glorify Uday, I don't know, I think that's for each person to decide. Am I proud of Latif Yahia for bringing his story to the world, absolutely. Because for each person that tries to rubbish him there are twenty Iraqis who will defend him, he stood up against the regime and in the end he's the winner.
Review of Son of Saddam
