The film makes some thought provoking moral distinctions between suicide bombing as a weapon of war for those without access to high tech weaponry (e.g. would it really be so different if a fighter dropped a bomb on the military convoy from a plane instead of attached to his chest?) and as a weapon of terror used against civilians.
It also does not deny that some who have used it as a weapon have done so after suffering heavy losses from others, instead of simply reducing them to crazy people acting in an irrational vacuum.
It traces the roots of martyrdom in Islam back 1400 years, and explains how that history was twisted by the leaders in Iran to justify suicide bombings in spite of strict Islamic laws against suicide.
Yet, in spite of the intensity and complexity of the subject, the dramatic, sometimes upsettingly graphic footage, and the somewhat over the top music, it starts to get a little repetitive and flat.
And it curiously ignores other historical suicide bombings, like the Japanese Kamikaze WWII pilots, declaring that suicide bombing was "invented" by Iran in the war with Iraq.
It also does not deny that some who have used it as a weapon have done so after suffering heavy losses from others, instead of simply reducing them to crazy people acting in an irrational vacuum.
It traces the roots of martyrdom in Islam back 1400 years, and explains how that history was twisted by the leaders in Iran to justify suicide bombings in spite of strict Islamic laws against suicide.
Yet, in spite of the intensity and complexity of the subject, the dramatic, sometimes upsettingly graphic footage, and the somewhat over the top music, it starts to get a little repetitive and flat.
And it curiously ignores other historical suicide bombings, like the Japanese Kamikaze WWII pilots, declaring that suicide bombing was "invented" by Iran in the war with Iraq.