MovieChat Forums > The Devil's Double (2011) Discussion > So the story isn't really true?

So the story isn't really true?

posted 13 years ago by INeedANewNickname
8 replies | jump to latest

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/aug/13/devils-double-tangled-tal e

This is an article that criticise media for thinking this story and true, and not question it and checking the facts, and as the author of the article is pretty sure "the story depicted in this film almost certainly never happened". Reading the article Latif Yahia story same very unlikely, specially the stuff he did after escaping Iraq, like taking an Austrian police officer as hostage, punching a judge etc.

What to do you guys think? Is it true? Does it even matters? Does it matter if the film is 100% fictional?

[–] Ambrosia-I 13 years ago

I don't think it really matters. I heard Dominic Cooper interviewed on Radio 5 Live and he said that the film was only loosely based on Yahia's book and that they hadn't stuck to the "facts" because there would always be some debate about what exactly happened at that time in Iraq. Since reading The Guardian article, I interpret that to mean that the filmmakers themselves took on board that none of what Yahia wrote has been verified.

What seems to be true is that Uday Hussein was unhinged and tortured people. I'd compare the film to something like "Gladiator" - Commodus existed, but things didn't happen the way they were shown in the film. "The Devil's Double" is very well acted, entertaining and well worth seeing. It's not a documentary and is probably mostly fiction, but as long as people realise that, I don't see any problem with it. The three Husseins are too dead to sue.

[–] bron-tay 13 years ago

Wow! I took a look at your link, then went out to a few others. Now I'm really wondering about Latif Yahya. It's weird -- the book was first published in Germany, by a German publisher. A journalist friend of mine who spoke German told me at the time that the substance of Latif's claims had been verified. But if others from Saddam's inner circle say Uday never had a "fidi" and Latif was never around, well, who knows?

In a way, the fictionality of this particular story doesn't matter much. Other sources provide plenty of evidence that Saddam and Uday were murderous brutes.

~~~~~~~
Think cynical thoughts.

[–] kamas1 13 years ago

Uday's double is a myth. It's something the West invented. Uday was a vicious bastard. Women in Iraq were unsafe around him. He had mood swings, so you wouldn't know how will he react next. Enjoy the film for what it is, but don't take it as the gospel truth.

[–] goatdog37 13 years ago

True. And Uday also did do some of the things in the movie (for example, killing his father's friend with a butcher knife).

[–] overninethousand 12 years ago

Some say it was an electric carving knife, or a baseball bat.

[–] AbsolvingDisorder 13 years ago

Actually, some of Yahia's stories have been verified. Some of Uday's verified friends have said that Latif did go to high school with Uday but wasn't part of Uday's clan post-high school.. they said that he was a double for a while and then went to prison for stealing. Apparently, Latif and Uday's close friends lived in the same affluent area and Latif was imprisoned by Uday several times for impersonating him and stealing from him..

One of Uday's bodyguards said that Latif acted as a pimp for Uday and wasn't really a double. Another bodyguard said that Latif is BS. Some of Uday's confirmed former friends also said that Latif pretended to be Uday after getting fired to ''get girls'' and would stalk Uday's girlfriends.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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