Synopsis
Their devastating and deadly actions punctuate the world news almost nightly, yet they remain faceless figures amidst the violence and turmoil that engulf the Middle East. And, whether it’s the C4-laden martyrs of Hezbollah or the car bombing insurgents of Iraq, what could possibly compel a suicide bomber to voluntarily take their own lives, along with those of hundreds of innocent victims? There is perhaps no one better equipped to investigate this terrifying practice than Robert Baer, a decorated, former Middle East CIA Agent and the man George Clooney’s character was based on in the Academy Award®-winning film, Syriana.
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Cast
- Robert BaerHimself
Recommendations
- 88
TV Guide Magazine
Baer asks all the right questions. - 75
New York Post
A fascinating history of how blowing yourself up became a popular hobby in the Muslim world. - 75
New York Daily News
Given that fundamentalist faith and sober logic are irreconcilable enemies, though, Baer's analysis inevitably leads to a grim roadblock, at which he can do little more than tally the toll. - 70
Village Voice
This is not the can't-we-get-along Arab-Persian world we see in most liberal nonfiction films, but a broader and helplessly apocalyptic view of an entire region crazed with anger, frustration, and bloodlust into objectifying death as a weapon, a cause for cosmic glory, and little else. - 70
Variety
Thoughtful, incisive, controversial. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Augmenting Baer's interviews with various figures embroiled in the Middle East struggle, including members of Hamas and the Hezbollah, is chilling footage of actual attacks, much of it emanating from the terrorists themselves. - 60
The New York Times
Like so many political films of this type made for British television, this documentary contains more information than analysis, not to mention predictably spooky music. - 50
The New Yorker
Near the end of the journey, chronicling Sunni car bombers in Iraq, he (Baer) talks sorrowfully of Muslims killing Muslims, and he concludes that suicide bombing has lost any coherent political meaning and has taken on an irresistible life of its own as a glamorous cult.