The Kings: From Babylon To Baghdad
The region now known as Iraq has always been, in many ways, world history's ground zero. From this rich territory sprang the earliest cities and empires, earliest armies, and earliest tyrants.
The Kings: From Babylon To Baghdad tells the story of Iraq through the history of its rulers, from Sargon the Great to Saddam Hussein. This feature-length documentary explores the connections and relevance between ancient and modern Iraq and between Iraq and the rest of the planet.
Using dialogue drawn directly from primary sources - original texts of ancient records - it depicts events in dramatic, living reenactments. Lush cinematography filmed on location frames the dramatizations and contemporary reportage. And interviews with the world's leading experts on the historical and current relevance of Iraq complete this authoritative portrait of the men who brought this fabled land glory and despair.
Today, as it has been many times in the past, understanding Iraq is central to the world's well-being. This documentary offers a thorough, thought-provoking view into the politics, personalities, government, geography, culture and religion of this all-important region.
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Though all the comments ring true , I personally am exhausted of looking for non bias non political information from the beginning of the “Cradle of Civilization - Modern day Iraq” For all of it. Including all the beginning spiritual beliefs to how it currently is today. I will say this ... It is very much a US occupied Iraq . However if anyone has any helpful information on the type of documentaries or books do let me know. Thank you
Interesting doco, little bit of American propaganda at the end there though!
Iraq -espacilay -Assyria -meaning the north part today will stay by it is name and its 4 million people abroad are going back and -Assyria regon through federal united Iraq is commong soon and we hope TOP DOCUMENTARIES will help in this matter and that direcation .Thanks in advance.
I think between two videos something is missing. Was it full documentary?
This was a good documentary and I learned a good deal from watching it, though, it appears to have a Western (and specifically American) bias. In the very beginning you can hear it when the narrator describes the old European nations and modern America doing the exact same thing in the Middle East yet for the former it's Imperialism and for the later it's just foreign policy. It also side steps mentioning the role the Western powers played (particularly the US) in strengthening the Baath party and supporting their coup. This is particularly irritating since it goes on and on about how vicious and cruel they were.
lol I knew all of this by reading the Bible, they missed out on some facts and forgot to mention in the beginning that it was all accurately recorded in the Bible before the events even happened. And that they though Babylon was a myth.
that woman,towards the enf of the doc, is she serious while telling'' these countries were almost ready for independence but they will gone need help from foreign powers to prepare them for independence. nation building...'' imperialist bitch..who does she think she is..
A fantastic documentary that is educational and based on most of the facts yet it does not reveal the part of western powers especially Britain played in carving conspiracies against the ottomans and the later governments, it also does not reveal the ferocity of an American assault which probably has killed and destroyed and looted the country and its people more than the Halaku Khan. The region however has lot more than economic or political strengths, being the origin center of the three most popular religions of the world, the middle east, especially the regions of today's Iraq, Palestine, Israel and Saudi Arabia have a potential of mobilizing and involving almost 70% of the worlds population( directly or otherwise) in a conflict.
they've briefed an important era in the history of IRAQ in this report but the , all i can add is that they missed to say that in all the times the Iraqis (whom got all the natural resources ) were in a defendant situation against their greedy neighbor the iranians ( persians ) whom were poor in natural resources and we can notice that the persians copied the Babylonian civilization refined it and made the persian civilization
Interesting.. no mention of 8 years of war that Saddam had with Iran and lost in the end but left 1 million Iranians and Iraqis dead.
It is all sad. Unfortunately, it is this way all over the world through out mans time on earth. It doesn't matter the color of your skin, your geography, or your religion, or gender or financial status..."the inclination of man is bad...all the time". Unfortunately, most of our (what ever country you live in) historical accounts are biased, because humans as a whole are selfish. Unless you were there it is very difficult to sort fact from fiction.
George W Bush has something to hide from the civilized world (he doesn't know how to spell civilized)
I need more information about the secret history of Iraq and about the new government of Iraq.
jibreel,
the US Constitution forbids American armies to get involved in overseas wars, unless the security of the US state is threatened. Illegality One.
The Allies seized Iraq's oil industry & auctioned it off to their energy corps. By international law, this is looting. Illegality Two.
Iraqi people happier now? Does that include the votes of the tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of dead civilians, plus their relatives?
As with most wars, the end result is mass death, misery, & destruction. Still we can't get enuf. OGT
this doccumentry is completely biest its disgusting. it sows how up until it was taken over by the us iraq has been under mostly opressive rule. and when the americans have come the people are happy and now free after thousands of years. makes me wana thow up how whipped the history channel is.
Abu Jasim,
I agree with much of your post. But don't hate 'America'. George Bush II was a poisonous, ignorant, mentally-diseased runt, like the rest of this present Obanana government. They are the face of conservatism, the rule by those who inherit billions & stamp down on the progress of ordinary people with the military jackboot. But then, that is why American pols are/were such pals with the Saudi Arabian regime, which includes the Bin Laden family.
'America' also includes great & courageous fighters for democracy, against the mass murder of imperialism. Some are Jewish, some are scholars - eg., Noam Chomsky.
Humanity's problems come from a deeper level than America. The great & golden Abbasid empire was destroyed from within. It is no secret that Islam is split into two warring camps. "The scholar's ink - - - - ". It delineates the truth under appearances. OGT
OGT,
Prior to the US invasions, death, destruction and occupation of Iraq, Baghdad had more people with PhDs than any city in America. The American outlaws & gangsters has to destroy any nation that has the capacity to have a higher standard of living than Americans. The Americans would like other nations to depend on them in every field and even running the affairs of their countries. These fools can't get it; the world is tired of America and the Americans.
Fifty years ago, the Americans were the most loved people in the world; today, America is the most hated nation on the planet. America's serious problems are just beginning. Wait until the world oil production reach the Peak in 2015 then watch the Christianists, Judistanists, Europeans, China men, Japs and nearly every country that is hungry for fuel start fighting each other over the finite source of oil. I hate to describe what earth will be like 20 or 25 years from now.
The war reenactments are really weak I agree...great insightful doc though.
Abu Jasim,
I would be happier if ignorance were only an American problem!
Alas, it is far more widespread. I was always greatly moved by the words of Mohammed. "The scholar's ink is more precious than the martyr's blood". That great lesson spread slowly from Moslem Spain to northern Europe. If only more people would learn it. OGT
OGT
I know lots of people that get their history lessons from movies. The greatest number of Americans are lazy to think or research when it involves cultures and nationalities outside of the European theatre. Yes, Europeans are more educated but less than 10% of Americans fall in the category of Educated as you are alluding to. Americans are insufficiently schooled about the world but are rampantly ignorant of Arabs and Muslims. They are pathetic. This ignorance will eventually bring the American empire down.
Abu Jasim
Abu Jasim,
there is a lot of truth in what you say, but you overstate the case. Please remember movies are mainly entertainment, not serious history. There is a growing attention in the West on the major inputs of Islamic civilization to the European Renaissances (2). Educated people in the West are much more aware of this today. As you suggest, the Crusaders were an unclean, ugly & murderous army of thieves. Alas, their modern counterparts share some of those characteristics. Let's fight prejudice & ignorance. OGT
While there are some facts in the story, the documentary contains war scenes from older films to demonize all the people east of the European theater. Throughout Hollywood history, notice how the Christianists and Judistanists always show Arabs, Persians, Mongols, Turks, etc. as filthy looking people but show Europeans as "civilized" people if they ever were. Just compare the helmets (hammered tin) while the Greeks appear typical clean Hollywood style of Greeks and Romans with shiny armors.
Muslims at the height of their faith always wore clean white cloths - symbol of purity and cleanliness) but notice how the Christianists and Judistanists produced films show Arabs wearing rags. Yet, in other films the Christianists produce films on the filthy Crusaders (with half their teeth missing) as clean Europeans wearing a white cloak with a red Cross on the back. In reality they were filthy people who never took baths because they were superstitious people. They never knew why they died if they fell in water or took bath as they caught pneumonia in cold freezing weather of Europe. They were so primitive they never knew why they died until the Muslims showed them Turkish baths, bathing and healthcare. Crusaders went to the Middle East smelling like pigs but went back to Europe wearing cotton, silk and perfume, etc. The Christianists and Judistanists would never have gone through the period of renaissance if it was not for the Muslims civilizing these savages.
If the Christianists and Judistanists believe that using Christianists and Judistanists is silly so Islamists and Islamism. It is time for the Christianists and Judistanists to wise up; The Arabs & Muslims will not roll over for these outlaws & gangsters. The Christianists and Judistanists could keep on killing millions more but eventually they will pack up their bags & leave just like the previous empires that came and went.
How come this film did not show the savage behavior of the evil American Christanists and Judistanists in Iraq? I mean the death, destruction, rape and plunder of Museums and libraries like the Monguls did in 1258 AD
The documentary is a Hollywood farce!
Rene,
the US did a peace deal with the Shia section of Iraq, those with many sympathies with the Shia regime in Iran. Generous? Hardly, since the Iraq'a oil fields have been stolen with violence & handed to the oil corps - quite illegal, but what the war was really about. As said earlier, there remains a huge US military garrison force, which guarantees 'freedom', as long as the Iraqis do as Uncle Sam says.
As for Afghan, when the Russians were doing what the Allies are doing, the media of the West was screaming blue murder. That was when Bin Laden was an ally. Remember? OGT
It will be interesting to see how this turns out. The U.S. has already handed the rulership of Iraq back to it's people like Afhanistan. It will probably be like S.Korea/Japan in a 40-60 years. It will be a great balncer concerning Russian/Sino interests/power.