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Saturday, April 27, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD THE DEVILS DOUBLE
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
The US has been preoccupied with Iraq for decades. After 9/11, its politicians
cooked up reasons for a real occupation. That preoccupation and occupation
continues with The Devil`s Double, that carries an Oscar-worthy,
scintillating performance by Dominic Cooper. His performance would have been
enough to watch this film, but its extremely interesting subtexts make this must
watch despite its many flaws.
A soldier, Latif Yahia (Dominic), is summoned from war to become the body double
of Saddam Hussain`s son Uday Hussain (Dominic) - a psychotic, erratically
violent, sex and drug obsessed fiend. This family loving and god-fearing man
finds it difficult to imitate a monster leading to confrontation that threatens
his and his family`s existence.
The film is a masterpiece of deception. At the face of it, The Devil`s
Double seems to portray the devilish life of Iraqis under a dictator -
Saddam Hussain. And it does seem so when one considers the excesses of Uday and
how his father tolerates him. However, this is actually a masterful deception
that even producer Harry Houdini would have been proud of.
For, hidden inside this deception is actually a positive portrayal of both
Saddam and everyone else in Iraq. Saddam is even shown trying to kill his
devilish son, only to be stopped at the last moment.
The people who work for him are all honest and god-fearing in their own way. The
citizens in the nation enjoy a good life and girls are shown wearing skirts to
school, much against the burqa-clad impression people have of any middle eastern
country.
The only devil in the picture is Uday.
The political subtexts of the film are thus well hidden. It seems to suggest
tacitly that like Uday in the film, the devils who invaded and raped the
otherwise beautiful and fairly peaceful country, are Americans.
Uday thus becomes a symbol of the Americans, and his double Yahya, of the
innocent Iraqi forced into an occupation they did not seek or deserve.
Yes, like Yahya, the citizens were in the midst of their own conflict under
Saddam, but the American occupation multiplied it exponentially.
And in that, this surprisingly apolitical film becomes one of the strongest
political films, and an indictment of American policies in Iraq.
Its politics is hidden in a veneer of Uday`s brutality. Kudos to the writers and
the director to have pulled this off with such finesse.
The greatest strength of the film is the explosive performance of Dominic. He
plays the nervous energy of a madman and immediately afterwards the nervousness
of another man trapped by that energy with equal elan.
His performance as Uday has the same intensity as that of a Daniel Day Lewis
playing Christy Brown in My Left Foot. Daniel won an Oscar for that
film. Will Dominic win for this one?
However, the film`s varying pace is a little disconcerting. And so is its
melodramatic ending.
However, the entendre and the double entendres, the images and splitting images,
the deception and the double deceptions, makes this a masterful creation despite
its flaws. It will keep the viewers engaged till the end. Hopefully, much longer
than that.
