Product Details

• Actors: Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein, Wallace Langham
• Directors: Joel Soler
• Writers: Scott Thompson
• Producers: Joel Soler
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Xenon
• VHS Release Date: April 1, 2003
• Run Time: 63 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000897A6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,668 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now more than ever..., April 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Uncle Saddam (DVD)

I laughed all through the first half of this movie. It's not often we westerners get to see a medieval despot in action, and Saddam would have been right at home in the Middle Ages. Here's a guy who demands that his subjects kiss him on each armpit; who has Iraq's major newspapers run a front page photo of him every day of the week; who's favorite sport is fishing-with hand grenades(!); who allocates much of Iraq's limited wealth to build monuments to himself. I found myself not hating Saddam so much as I wanted to put him on display as a kind of curiosity, like in the Ripley museum.

The second half was much more sobering, focusing mainly on who was killing who to get ahead in the regime. All in all, you really have to admire the filmmaker (a Frenchman-Gasp!), who risked his life for the sake of ridiculing one of the most dangerous people on Earth. And for the record, I'm against the war, but that doesn't mean I don't think somebody needs to plug the S.O.B.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars bizarre and riveting, November 13, 2004

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Uncle Saddam (DVD)

Undoubtedly the strangest documentary I've ever seen, the footage of Saddam is more like watching a comedian do a "dictator skit" in the manner of Charlie Chaplin's Hitler, than an actual human being. In an array of ill-fitting hats, we see Saddam at rest, at play, and having lots of fun dancing. He looks totally insane, and most likely on some serious "medication". It also goes through the family tree, some of whom we are familiar with because they have graced the famous "deck of cards". Son Uday obviously either had the same genetic madness, and/or the same chemist.

French filmmaker Joel Soler risked his life to get this footage. Using the subterfuge of making a documentary on Iraqi architecture, he gained rare access into many areas not normally shown to anyone with a camera. We do get to see the many astounding, grandiose palaces, which he contrasts with the filthy conditions in the Children's Hospital, where the flies are fat, and the children skeletal.
One of the more bizarre sections is the "Saddam Art Center", which contains nothing but wall-to-wall portraits of the Evil Madman, and all the tours are led by glassy-eyed fawning subjects, full of praise for their fearless leader, and who would dutifully kiss him in his preferred spot, his armpits, which brings about Saddam's lecture on hygiene and body odors. One has to wonder how anyone retained their sanity surviving decades of this man's iron-fisted rule, and how those born under it, who have known nothing else, can learn to live in the real world.

Interspersed throughout are flashes of the true horror behind this veil of Saddam's happy Iraq, and commentary by exiled Iraqis of their experiences.
The musical choices for the soundtrack are excellent, and if you like Arabic music as I do, you'll find the score enjoyable.
This is a riveting documentary, totally unique in its presentation. A true-life black comedy, and a rare piece of filmmaking. Total running time is approximately 63 minutes.

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncle Saddam, March 27, 2003

By 

Chris Hollas "Larry" (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncle Saddam (DVD)

Not only is Saddam a poison gas wielding monument building mass murdering dictator, he's a clean freak with a hat for every occasion. Good stuff.