The Devil's Double
Lee Tamahori
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Plot Summary
Based on a gripping, unbelievable true story of money, power and opulent decadence, Lionsgate’s THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE takes a white-knuckle ride deep into the lawless playground of excess and violence known as Baghdad, 1987. Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein's palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the "royal family" when he’s ordered to become the ‘fiday’ – or body double – to Saddam's son, the notorious "Black Prince" Uday Hussein (also Dominic Cooper), a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality.
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Director
Screenwriter
Movie Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes
TOMATOMETER
52%- Reviews Counted: 99
- Fresh: 51
- Rotten: 48
- Average Rating: 5.5/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: Equally as offensive as the movie's smorgasbord of smut and violence is the lingering whiff of colonial-era orientalism, a Western predilection for regarding Eastern cultures as innately idle, lascivious, irrational, and thus ripe for intervention.
Fresh: The hero of "The Devil's Double" may get upstaged by the villain, but that's not exactly bad news for star Dominic Cooper, since he plays both parts.
Fresh: It is a ghastly, riveting, dazzling piece of work.
Rotten: The elements of tyranny, treachery and temptation are all there in one true-life package, but in the hands of director Lee Tamahori, The Devil's Double plays more like a melodrama than a docudrama.
Customer Reviews
As a U.S. Army Combat Vet
I find this story a good representation of how crazy Saddam's Iraq was. I would like to be clear, I have lost many friends in our nations current wars and killing Saddam or his son's will never bring any peace but maybe it is better they are off this earth. I pray we have done the right thing and this move is based in more fact than fiction. I find this movie a good watch but a painful. How anyone can be so without empathy only God knows.
YES
BEAUTIFULLY done movie. And should not be taken for more than that. If you like Fight Club and Rock and Rolla you will enjoy this movie. Dominic Copper showed a stunning performance. Theatrical, grotesque, strong, and disturbing.
Yet….let me remind you for those who are looking to see truth instead of a story. This should not be compared to reality and I do not believe the director was trying to simulate the truth. As many good enjoyable movies, this is a story pulled out of cultural context, brushed with gold, and dipped in chocolate.
So my friends, enjoy the ride.
Well done, but not a true story
This movie tells a compelling story, well-acted and entertaining, but the man who claimed to have served as Uday's body double in real life has little credibility if you take a few minutes to read about his outlandish claims. Uday Hussein was indeed a vlie human being who likely engaged in most of the sadistic behaviors portrayed in the movie. However, former members of the Hussein family's inner circle as well as CIA operatives intimately familiar with Uday deny that he ever used a body double, nor was Latif Yahia in his employ. But Dominic Cooper does an admirable job playing both parts in this bit of fact/fiction.
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