I love cunt.
I want cunt.
I see a cunt, I want to fuck it.
I don’t care.
I love my country. I love my mother, my father.
But I love cunt more than I love God!
– Uday Hussain after kidnapping a school girl in The Devil’s Double
George W.Bush was a warmonger who wrought great misery on America and other parts of the world as well.
But we all must be enormously thankful to Bush for one reason.
And for one reason only – The Killing of Uday Hussain by U.S. soldiers during the illegal Iraqi invasion over non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
While it is true that history is written by the victors, several accounts (besides the U.S.) put Uday Hussain, son of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, as a monster.
Even by the standards of fiends, Uday was a sick monster given to debauchery, plunder, rape and murder.
Uday’s Body Double
Directed by drag queen Lee Tamahori, The Devil’s Double presents the gripping account of Latif Yahia, who’s said to have served as Uday Hussain’s Fedai or body double.
Serious doubts have been cast over Latif’s accounts by British journalists.
Some eyewitnesses claim that Uday never had a body double.
But let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted by claims and counterclaims from what’s by all accounts a fine movie.
English actor Dominic Cooper plays both Uday Hussain and his body double Latif Yahia with mucho gusto and verve.
The movie is set in the late 1980s.
Latif is serving in the Iraqi army from where he’s pulled and brought to Uday Hussain who orders him to serve as his body double.
Refusing to take ‘No’ for an answer, Uday has Latif tortured and threatens that his family members will suffer if he persists in his refusal.
Faced with a Hobson’s Choice, Latif then agrees.
From that moment, we’re provided an intimate look into Uday Hussain’s bizarre private life.
The opulent lifestyle, the girls, the drugs, the killing, the kidnapping of young school girls, rape of brides, the wild, incoherent rage, the torture, sexcesses and the excesses.
How much of the sexcesses and excesses we see in The Devil’s Double is real and how much fiction, we can never know with certainty.
But director Lee Tamahori provides a thrilling, fairly-fast paced portrait of a psychotic monster in Uday Hussain that has us glued to the screen.
Dominic Cooper does an excellent job, both as the wild, unhinged Uday and as the restrained, helpless Latif forced to extinguish his personality and previous life and facing repeated assassination attempts.
The last 20-minutes or so were a disappointment as the movie slows down to a languorous pace and an effete unconvincing ending.
SearchIndia.com recommends the Devil’s Double to connoisseurs of offbeat cinema.
The Devil’s Double is available at Netflix if you live in the U.S.
Off-topic:
Watched a Korean movie – “Going by the book” – online on Netflix.
I was expecting a violent crime thriller along the lines of my recent experiences. But this movie turned out to be a comedy. It is fucking hilarious – special mention goes to the “rape” scene in the movie. These Koreans have a great sense of humor.
Don’t miss it!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Added to NLFX queue.
Will try to watch Going By the Book tonight or tomorrow.
Interesting review.
Will try to watch the movie.
Btw, have you heard about the movie Dam999 and the controversy it created here in TN?
It’s an English-language movie directed by an Indian Sohan Roy. He claimed it was based on a real-life incident that happened in China due to a dam breakage, claiming 250,000 lives. But the political parties here were quick to call a ban on the movie as they felt it was based on the Mullaiperiyar dam issue. They claimed that Sohan Roy, who is a malayali, was in ties with the Kerala Govt. which asked him to make a movie showcasing what would happen if the dam broke. In case you don’t know, the Kerala Govt. was repeatedly claiming that the dam was unstable and that it would break. So they requested the TN nitwits to build a new dam.
All the DMK, MDMK etc claimed that the movie would create law and order problem and ruin the relationship b/w Kerala and TN.
I feel that all this is just stupidity. Unduly bringing politics into entertainment.
Your views?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Banning the movie Dam 999 is the acme of nonsense.
What sort of a democracy is India?
Just because a few monkeys make some noise, do we go and ban the movie.
It’s the nature of monkeys to create noise and disturbances.
It’s the job of the government to ensure that the noise and non-violent disturbances that are an indispensable part of a democracy are kept under control.
Hell, no. They take the drastic step of banning the movie.
As the modified Sanskrit/Hindi saying goes:
Yatha Praja Thatha Raja (As the Ruled so the Ruler)
People get the government they deserve.