The Cult of the Suicide Bomber

New York Post by

A fascinating history of how blowing yourself up became a popular hobby in the Muslim world.

The New Yorker by David Denby

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.

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

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.

The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

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.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Baer asks all the right questions.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

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.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

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.

Variety by Ronnie Scheib

Thoughtful, incisive, controversial.