Muammar
Gaddafi was responsible for the mass murder of man and camel alike. Never shy about
executing those unfortunate enough to have their loyalty questioned, Gaddafi also
once ordered the wholesale extermination of all camels within Tripoli,
believing they were incompatible with his vision of a modern city. Yet, during
his final years, Gaddafi traveled internationally with representative camels
along with his ostentatious, bullet proof tent, and extensive entourage of
female bodyguards. Even the animals never knew where they stood with the Libyan
tyrant. The cruel and erratic nature of his dictatorship is documented in shocking
detail throughout Christopher Olgiati’s Mad Dog: Inside the Secret World of Muammar Gaddafi, which premieres
on Showtime this Friday.
It
was President Ronald Reagan who dubbed Gaddafi a “mad dog” and history has
vindicated him once again. Gaddafi initially charmed his neighbors and the
regional media, but as the years progressed, his grandiose ambitions to become
a modern day Saladin were largely derided within the Arab world. Instead, he
tried to “re-brand” himself as the once-and-future “King of Africa,” launching
a good will offensive aimed at Africa’s crowned royalty, despite his explicitly
racist beliefs. At least, he always maintained mutually cordial relations with
just about every terrorist group operating around the globe, including Carlos
the Jackal, the PLO, and the IRA.
Nearly
everyone will go into Mad Dog with
the general understanding that Gaddafi was a bad guy, but the depths of his sadistic
perversity are truly shocking. Olgiati thoroughly exposes Gaddafi’s crimes as a
sexual predator, targeting young girls and boys alike, in a manner befitting
Uday Hussein as immortalized in Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double.
Indeed,
Mad Dog uncovers many more truly bizarre
revelations that are mystifyingly macabre (you could say he had a habit of
keeping his political opponents on ice). To his credit, director-producer-cameraman
Olgiati pushes his interview subjects to be precise and supply specifics. He
never accepts vague implications, forcing them to spell out each and every
incident under discussion. While most of the talking heads are surviving Libyan
dissidents, there are a few hidden camera sequences with former regime insiders
that are highly illuminating.
Perhaps
the least substantiated passages within Mad
Dog are the rather gossipy charges of CIA support for Gaddafi during his
early days as a mini-mart for terrorists. However, Olgiati is on solid ground criticizing
the overly optimistic campaign to rehabilitate Gaddafi (who by the way, was
sitting on top of vast oil reserves). He also notably details ways in which
Gaddafi exploited Islam to serve his propaganda purposes.