Customer Reviews

Sadat [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw Sadat back in 1993. I was impressed with his skill as a politician, how he survived, though despised, under Gamal Abdel Nasser, when his peers were taken away one by one, and later as Egypt's leader as the first Arab nation in achieving the highly unpopular yet sorely needed peace with Israel.
This movie is a bit long (2 VHS). I would recommend to set aside at least 5 hrs with breaks to see it in one seating.
I feel the movie brings out what a true great politician is supposed to be: someone able to negotiate through difficult circumstances and great opposition, bidding his time to achieve a worthy goal.
I highly recommend this movie. It could even have a place in a college-level Political Science course!
P.S.: I wish they would reissue it as DVDs. It is a classic.

The movie was very informative but because of time ristrictions it skipped a lot of critical events in Sadat's life. Some events in the movie can be argued but the movie was well acted out and directed.

Sadat is a good film. I was using it for my audio/visual source for a school presentation and it gave me plenty of information and helped me to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict better and also early Egypt. This is both informative and exciting.

I am aware that the Egyptians never liked this TV movie because Gossett was an African American not an Egyptian but it is still great to watch him in a great role that earned him a Golden Globe Nomination. Either way if anyone wants this on DVD, I would check this website; [...]

Made less than two years after Sadat's assassination, the movie makes him out to be a saint. Sadat was no saint, he was a man and he had his faults like any other.

The movie compresses many events in Sadat's life. It appears that both prison sentences he served early in his life are portrayed as a single event. Also, his role in the pro-Nazi Free Officers is not discussed at all, nor would you know that Sadat was jailed while Britain and the Allies were fighting for their lives when Sadat started trying to undermine them.

Given the circumspect nature of the film many key events, formation of the United Arab Republic, Egyptian involvement in Yemen, the War of Attrition etc. are not discussed. However, the film does attempt to convey the byzantine nature of military politics which ran the country during and after the Nasser years and does reasonably well in this.

What the movie entirely fails to convey is the fact that it was not just Nasser who was a military dictator it was also Sadat. Despite the title of "President" Sadat never stood for election. However, he did make a move toward peace with Israel, the first Arab country to do so. His image in the movie is derived from that.

It's a good movie. Just don't read too much into it.