Giving the Devil His Due
A few weeks ago, I spent my Friday evening at a local movie theater, taking in a film that was considerably more bohemian than my normal fare. One of the predictable consequences of this dubious decision was to be bombarded with previews for films I had never heard of -- the sort of movies that may pack art houses in college towns but that generally don't even make it to theaters like those in my suburban Los Angeles neighborhood.
At the beginning of one of the previews -- for a film obviously set in the Middle East -- a group of rough-looking Arab men drags a prisoner into the desert, while one of the menacing figures instructs him, "you have five minutes to think about this before your family -- every one of them -- is thrown into Abu Ghraib." Only seconds later, another one of the men coyly smiles at the prisoner and lightly asks, "Thought it over?"
The mild nausea that swept over me with this bit of plot disclosure is probably familiar to any conservative who's watched television or been to a movie in the last decade. "OK", I thought, "I get it. This is another two-hour lament of every single action the U.S. has taken in the Middle East over the last decade. And we're going to be the bad guy."
This reaction wasn't reflexive hostility so much as it was sadness. There are a lot of perfectly legitimate arguments against U.S. involvement in Iraq and elsewhere that carry with them a good bit of intellectual sophistication. They just don't tend to make it to theaters. Whether it was "Lions for Lambs", "The Green Zone", or "In the Valley of Elah", Hollywood has produced a string of box-office bombs in recent years that often targeted American foreign policy on the grounds of being morally bankrupt rather than tragically flawed (not that I necessarily agree with the latter interpretation, but it would have at least deserved some intellectual respect).
That's why the preview from that night wound up being so refreshing. It turns out that the thuggish lead character in the film wasn't a fictionalized Iraqi tough doing the dirty work of a corrupt U.S. government. Instead, he was a real monster -- Uday Hussein, Saddam's sadistic son.
The film, entitled "The Devil's Double", opens in theaters on Friday and it tells the true (though I'm sure sensationalized) story of Latif Yahia, an officer in the Iraqi army who was forced to work as Uday's body double. Judging by the trailer, the sex and violence quotient has been maximized, doubtlessly to give the film a "Scarface" sort of appeal (for that reason, I'll share the link to the trailer here, but refrain from actually posting it and bumping up against the CoC).
But it also seems to play the story of Uday's rapacious appetite for human suffering pretty straight. In the three-minute trailer, we discover him to be a womanizing, drug-addled serial killer. And Saddam is fair game too, with one scene seeming to show him preparing to commit a beheading.
Hopefully "The Devil's Double" can resist the temptation to make a political stand, and instead simply tell the instructively grotesque story of two of the most despicable human beings to inhabit the planet in recent memory. A decade after 9/11, it would be one of the only films ("United 93" also did an admirably stoic job) that has had the courage to call evil by name -- and to not have that name be the United States of America.
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May '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
I thought "The Hurt Locker" was pretty apolitical, although maybe I'm jaded. And it won Best Picture in 2008.
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Ottoman, you'll note that I didn't reference "The Hurt Locker", as I still (regrettably) haven't seen it. Most reports I have heard track yours though -- that it didn't leave the viewer feeling like he was being subjected to a political agenda one way or the other. If that's true, I'm delighted.
My particular hope for "The Devil's Double" is that it goes a step further by reminding us of the vast disparity between the genuine evil of the Husseins and the noble -- if at times flawed -- instincts of the U.S.
Jul '11
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
I'll wait for the reviews. If it is anti-American there's as much chance my money gets spent on it as a Sean Penn movie.
Oct '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
There have been a number of films in the venue of fighting terrorism from Hollywood. Most have been political and of apologist in nature. Have not seen the film mentioned here as yet.
For some reason Hollywood likes to cast the efforts to combat terrorism in a light that seems to switch the tables on who are the bad guys.
May '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Troy, I'm curious what you thought of The Kingdom.
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Mark,
Another one I didn't see. If I recall correctly, that film centered around Saudi Arabia, correct? Do you recommend it?
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Another truly execrable (and borderline incoherent) cinematic look at the Middle East, by the way: Syriana.
May '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Troy Senik: Mark,
Another one I didn't see. If I recall correctly, that film centered around Saudi Arabia, correct? Do you recommend it? · Jul 27 at 11:23pm
Yes I would. I really enjoyed it as an action and suspense film, but I tried not to read into it politically. In that regard I thought it was rather neutral, either that or two-minded in a way that struck me as fair considering the complexity of the issue as you alluded to in your post. I know some people took it either way, as a morally relativistic apology for Saudi extremism or as a sympathetic piece on America (and Saudi Arabia) and its struggle with terrorism. Here's the trailer.
Edited on Jul 27, 2011 at 11:45pmRe: Giving the Devil His Due
Couldn't agree more. Ugh.
Jul '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Mark Wilson
Yes I would. I really enjoyed it as an action and suspense film, but I tried not to read into it politically. In that regard I thought it was rather neutral, either that or two-minded in a way that struck me as fair considering the complexity of the issue as you alluded to in your post. · Jul 27 at 11:42pm
Edited on Jul 27 at 11:45 pm
I enjoyed The Kingdom as well, and would recommend it.
Interestingly, I read some articles after seeing it that suggested that the director intended the movie to draw equivalences between the Americans and the terrorists. The movie he made, however, fails to make that argument. In one piece, he reported being shocked at hearing test audiences cheering for the American FBI agent characters in a shootout scene. It's like he missed the point of his own film.
May '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
My understanding is Peter Berg, the director of The Kingdom, feared a jingoistic type reaction to the film, after observing American test audiences cheering. He then also observed a European Muslim audience which had a similar reaction to the film. He summed both up as a universal reaction to a group of people fighting evil.
By the way, Peter Berg also directed the excellent TV series Friday Night Lights.
Edited on Jul 28, 2011 at 4:49amDec '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
When did Ringo Starr restart his acting career?
May '10
Re: Giving the Devil His Due
Judith Levy
Couldn't agree more. Ugh. · Jul 28 at 12:41am
I don't know - any film as boring as Syriana was just like pulling out (George Clooney's) fingernails.
Yeah we get the world is linked in all sorts of crazy ways. Please stop the polemic tedium now Hollywood.
Edited on Jul 28, 2011 at 11:06am