Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

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

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

goldenshuttle 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.

Thomas In my view, this miniseries is an excellent portrayal of Saddam Hussein's reign of terror. The actors' performances were excellent.However, in my view, the full extent of Uday's ruthlessness was not completely explored and portrayed in this miniseries. For example, Uday was known to rape brides on their wedding day (one groom then shot himself that very day).Also, Uday was known to rape girls as young as 12 years of age. If their fathers protested, Uday threatened their very lives. In addition, Uday was known to prowl Iraqi streets in search of women. When he saw a woman he liked, he would shoot her male companion, and then kidnap the female.Furthermore, Uday was notorious for torturing Iraqi soccer players who lost games and anyone who he considered a foe. When he was a teen, Uday killed a teacher who had the audacity to reprimand the rambunctious firstborn son of the Iraqi dictator. Such atrocities should have been included in the miniseries.After viewing this miniseries, it certainly puts things in proper perspective. The liberal media and "Bush haters" like to forget the mass graves and the countless innocents who were brutally raped and murdered by Hussein and his supporters. Judging by media outlets such as NBC and the New York Times, once would think a peaceful, contributing member of the world community was suddenly overthrown by a rogue nation. I choose NOT to forget the unfortunate souls who were brutalized under Hussein.History will smile on President Bush's decision to liberate the Iraqi people from this ruthless murderer. This miniseries clearly demonstrates this assertion.Nevertheless, HBO's "House of Saddam" was done quite well, and I enjoyed it very much.

gray4 This four-part mini-series grips you from the outset. Yigal Naor's portrayal of the young Saddam is brilliant, seizing power brutally but always with a purpose behind his brutality. This contrasts with the mindless, purposeless brutality of his elder son Uday (Philip Arditti), which comes through in the 2nd and 3rd episodes.The mini-series' structure, taking four key years in Saddam's life over 24 years, is managed extremely effectively, although one consequence is that some of the best-known incidents of his reign of terror have to be omitted.The character of each family member develops across the episodes and the overall sense of an all-pervading reign of terror comes over very powerfully.My main criticism is of the final episode, almost elegiac with a mellow Saddam on the run with a consequent loss of tension and momentum. Although I suppose that, as we all know what happened to him right from the start, this is probably inevitable. But well worth watching and superbly acted by everyone.

Peter Hayes The rise and fall of the Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein.What a big project this must have been. Trying to distil the best bits of Saddam's twenty four years in power in to four hours and not losing those not steeped in Middle Eat politics would appear impossible to some - but my word, they have pulled it off! Here you have it all: Power, sex, family, violence, politics, war, madness, you name it. The complete drama play box. Yet this is a personal drama that is more interested in family and politics than needless bloodshed. Not that it isn't very gory at times. This is not for children.You also have a fantastic lead performance from Yigal Naor. Utterly mesmerising: Deluded, multi-faced, sometimes charming and yet ruling by fear. Trusting nobody - and certainly not his friends or family. Hitler meets Idi Amin in a country with rich oil fields and - therefore - "important" to the West.Pick of the highly convincing support cast is Philip Arditti as "first son" Uday. The mad-as-a-hatter "heir". The camera lingers/glaces on him for no reason at council and cabinet meetings, sneering or (inappropriately) looking unconcerned. He even makes Saddam look straight!Yes, it had loads of things to crib and copy from: The Sopranos and the Godfather Trilogy among them, but it is amazing how the format fits around a story that is almost entirely true. In its major facts at least.If there is a better mini-series played on TV this year I would be very surprised. You'll want to watch it more than once - I know I did.