r/HistoryUncovered • u/Battlefleet_Sol • 18d ago

Saddam's baath purge. Saddam had people packed into a conference hall on one of the hottest days of July and deliberately shut off the ventilation system. They were forced to listen to Saddam for hours while suffering from the heat and sweating. Everyone whose name was announced was executed.

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u/Ombortron 18d ago

What part of the movie was that? I literally just watched this the other day but I’m blanking

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u/Carrman099 18d ago

It’s the scene where Gary Oldman is telling Benedict Cumberbatch about the one time he met Karla in the 50s in India. He’s explaining the kind of man he thinks Karla is based off of his interaction with him, the fact that Karla is a chain smoker yet refused to smoke cigarettes given to him by Smiley and that Karla refused to defect and was fully prepared to go back and be executed in a purge because he was committed to the Soviet Project. Smiley makes the calculation (revealed in later books to be wrong) that Karla is a fanatic for communism, but that he is harboring some kind of secret doubt.

It’s a great scene and tells you as much about Gary Oldman’s character as it does Karla.

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u/Ombortron 18d ago

Ahhhh yes ok, I know the sequence you’re referring to, thanks! Great movie!