Lack of good storyline.

A different way of telling a story

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"House of Saddam" covers a quarter century of the Iraqi dictator's ruthless rule over his people. The filmmakers play it straight: they depict the political and historical developments the way Saddam was believed to have viewed them--that Kuwait was unfair and foolish to have increased oil production in the late 1980s/early 1990s, that the Iraqi government believed it had received private assurances from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq that Americans would not interfere with an Iraqi-Kuwaiti conflict, and that Iraq was a world hero standing alone athwart the frightening menace of post-revolutionary Iran.Although the film lets Saddam Hussein speak for himself without interjecting serious voices of political opposition, the mini-series does not excuse or minimize Saddam's villainy or extreme paranoia. Saddam murders his enemies, and at times renders even shabbier treatment to those closest to him. Saddam kills his best friend to demonstrate his ability to be tough. Saddam cashiers his own half brother, head of his personal security, in favor of an ambitious ruffian from Saddam's father's family. He arranged the murder of his wife's brother and his daughters' husbands.What gives "House of Saddam" panache is the luxurious production values, the soapy melodrama of the family (Uday's serial addictions, Saddam's love affair with his future second wife, the plucky austerity of Saddam's mother), and casting actors who are sexier and more stylish than the real people they played. This is how history should be told—with personality and flare.

As far as a TV mini-series goes, it doesn't get much better than this. The co-production that boasts the heavyweight partnership between HBO and BBC is evident in the quality of the sets, the cinematography, the casting (for the most part), script writing, editing, and acting.Each episode created heart-racing drama, often so thick it could be cut with a knife.My once qualm: as an Arabic speaker, I could hear right through some accents that were clearly not Arab. The worst offenders being Shohreh Aghdashloo's thick Iranian accent handling the part of Saddam's wife Sajida -- an earsore if there ever was one. Another was Agni Scott (ne' Tsangaridou) who's evident Greek accent again distracted from her performance as Raghad Hussein.However, the roles of Uday, Tariq Aziz, Ali Hassan al-Majid, Hussein Kamel, and especially Saddam (played by Yigal Naor) were as convincing as one could ask for.Overall highly entertaining, and informative for those less familiar with the Baath regime, as the plot line curbed closely to the facts. Well worth watching.

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.

There are still some people out there that love Saddam because he was "such a good and brave man". I'm glad that this mini-series was produced so people around the world can see the true face of Saddam Hussein: an evil tyrant not only to his own people but also to his family and every human being that he saw as a threat. The sad part is that not all people that became his victims were actually a threat to him: Saddam viewed them as a threat because of his sick mind.If you want to see the real Saddam and discover the truth, I recommend this mini-series for you to see!10/10 - A mini-series about Saddam Hussein and his family and close friends, about the Iraq-Iran war, the invasion of Kuwait and other real life historical accurate events. It also contains entertainment & drama and you can also learn history at the same time!