The Devil's Double

By Mr. Tropnevad

Summary

Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) has been given an offer he can’t refuse from Saddam Hussein’s son Uday Hussein (Dominic Cooper). Latif must study every action by Uday in order to become his exact double. While some Iraqis would be honored to have this opportunity Latif becomes fed up with Uday’s immoral lifestyle.


What I Expected

I heard about this movie last year when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and critics were raving about how good it was. I was hoping it would come to a theater near me, but if it came I must have missed it. Then after it came out on Blu-Ray I completely missed it until I was reminded of it last week, because several people were putting it on their best of last year’s list. One of the few things I was aware of was that this was based off of Latif Yahia’s autobiography about his role as Uday Hussein’s double.

The Bad

I’m going to nit pick about something for a minute. In several scenes Latif and Uday go out in public together. Wouldn’t someone say wait these two look very identical. Instead of trying to kill one why not just kill both. Since Uday is a sex addict you would figure that by now he would get an STD and possibly learn not to try to screw anything with legs. Even Saddam at one point wants to teach him a lesson, but decides not to, because what a doctor tells him. I don’t know how any parent especially a leader like Saddam would let their child roam around doing what Uday did.

This isn’t really bad, but more of a warning. There are scenes of torture that some people may not be able to handle watching. Obviously they aren’t real, but it could cause people to become bothered by the scenes. The only thing that really bothered me was that they showed Uday raping young girls at the age of fourteen. Don’t get me wrong though, I am glad they informed the viewer of how demented this guy was.

While watching this I noticed that Uday and his mom had some sort of thing going on. I kept thinking this was just me until I watched the special features and they said that they just added that into the movie. I was thinking we already thought Uday was sick in the head, but to make something up by making you think that he and his mom had a thing was going overboard. We already knew he like to torture and raping young girls, but did they have to add that he has a thing for his mom. That was just ridiculous.

The Good

I watched this late one night and decided that I would watch the first half of the movie and then go to bed and watch the rest the next day. From the time I sat down to watch it I was so intrigued by what was going on that I never noticed what time it was and before I knew it the movie was over.

From the very beginning of the movie you are informed that this is based off of a true story. While watching I was curious how much of this was true and I was surprised after watching the extras on the Blu-ray after that almost this entire story was true. Almost everything that Uday did was completely true and by the time this movie is over your going to be glad this man is dead.

In the very beginning we get shots of one of the palaces that Uday is living in and then we learn of a man named Latif. Uday offers him a chance to be his double and he declines, because he knows Uday’s lifestyle. Needless to say Latif is threatened and beaten and told that he has to be his double. If I was an Iraqi I would have said yes to this just to have everything. I would have tried to steal money or gold or something that was worth money and then left the country, but that’s just me.

When you read the summary and it said that Dominic Cooper was playing both roles you read that right. He does a very good job at portraying both men. While I have no idea what Uday sounds like or how he actually acted like in real life. I do think he acted like a cartoon character, because his voice was kinda like Donald Duck. Not to mention since he has so much money and knows he can get away with anything he acts ridiculous. When Cooper is playing Latif he acts like a normal person would who was around this man. He cared for the people around him and really didn’t care what happened to Uday.

The film makers did a good job at showing how Uday had Latif changed to look very similar to him. He goes through several types of surgeries and then he has to learn to act and dress like Uday when he is acting as his double. Uday’s bodyguards and people that help him do everything including putting his clothes on are now his to use, too. While they give him nice clothes to wear they tell him that he can use any of his Rolex watches to wear. I am just brining this up so everyone knows this that I am about 100% sure that if Uday is driving a Ferrari he isn’t wearing a piece of shit Rolex. I am sure he would be wearing a Franck Muller watch because not only do they look better, but they cost tens to hundreds of thousands dollars more.

While there are several scenes in the movie that show how crazy Uday is there is one that stood out. /*Spoiler He is at a party getting drunk and yelling at a man who provides his father with whores and that seemed to piss him off. He leaves the man alone and then the man says something to rile him up and then there is a very graphic scene where Uday slices this man up in front of everyone. I was very surprised at how graphic this scene was. /*Spoiler -

Overall Thoughts

I really enjoyed this movie and as I said earlier I was going to stop and go to bed, but I was so wrapped up in this that I could not stop watching. While I was aware of Uday, I had no idea that this man was so insane. The blu-ray has several special features and an interview with the real Latif. I would like to read this book at some point to do a comparison between the movie and the book. I would say Latif has some balls of steel for putting up with a man who is so insane. I am pretty sure I could add more praise to this movie, but i don't want to spoil anything.

If this movie would have came out thirty years ago we could put this as a Iraqi gangster movie. I would say that if you are a fan of gangster films such as Scarface you should definitely watch this movie. If you would like to learn something about the war going on over in Iraq I would say watch this movie.

This is an amazing movie and I would give high praise to Dominic Cooper for his role as two people in this movie. Should you buy this movie? No. Now I know I confused you, because I have praised this movie, but the thing is this movie is so good and possibly so accurate that I found myself angry that this man was even alive. I would watch it again and someday I would like to own this in my collection. Most people will find this too violent and bothered by the Iraqi war that they may not want to buy this or watch it. I hope that everyone that is reading this rents this and then immediately turns around and tells their friends and family how good this movie is. It is ashamed that this movie was not in theaters for very long and it is a shame that Dominic Cooper was unnoticed for his role in this by the Oscar Committee.

Overall- Strong Rent