Overview: 'Bitter Rivals' illuminates the essential history - and profound ripple effect - of Iran and Saudi Arabia's power struggle. It draws on scores of interviews with political, religious and military leaders, militia commanders, diplomats, and policy experts, painting American television's most comprehensive picture of a feud that has reshaped the Middle East.

DVD Verdict: From the devastating war in Syria, to the crisis in Yemen, to continuing turmoil in Iraq, much of today's widespread violence across the Middle East has been portrayed as part of an ancient battle between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam.

In 'Frontline: Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia,' FRONTLINE tells the epic, inside story of how this dangerous feud has plunged the Middle East into unprecedented levels of violence - with exclusive, on-the-ground reporting from inside both countries as well as Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, and Lebanon.

After having visited Egypt three times in the last five years, I got interested in the Islamic world and how it worked, and how Islam shapes this pivotal region. It's a fascinating culture and civilization, and has a rich history, also stunningly beautiful art and literature.

The Islamic world led the European world for hundreds of years in medicine and technology. We in the West owe a huge debt to them, and the interplay of the European culture and the Islamic culture during the Crusader period enriched both worlds. But very few people in the United States know this.

I cared enough to look into the ancient rivalry between Shia and Sunni branches of Islam and how it started, and how both branches have developed over time. The intense hatred there can be, the one for the other, is actually a fairly new thing, not an old thing. It has been farmed and exploited by some truly selfish and self-centered people, from many lands, for a long time now.

Iran and Saudi Arabia look at one another with fear and suspicion, because the rulers of both countries know that they are in fact not legitimate representatives of the wishes of their peoples, and they both represent poles of opposites in the interpretation of Islam.

In their individual ways, the ruling factions of both countries are stoking the fires of extremism, in the false belief that they will keep themselves safe from the tide of freedom, brotherhood, peace and abundance, that both populations deeply wish for.

Saudi Arabia looks at Iran and believes it could be looking at its own future -- the Ayatollah's force them out and take over the wealth of their country, and retrograde any development for their people.

Iran looks at Saudi Arabia and sees a puppet controlled by the West, completely in bed with Zionist Israel, and who holds a stranglehold on the holy sites of Mecca and Medina.

It is incumbent on every Muslim to visit Mecca on religious pilgrimage, if he is able, at least once in his life. If people in the West think of this at all, they might in a context of the hundreds of years of religious wars that were fought in Europe, Catholicism vs. Protestantism.

Ergo, and in short, 'Frontline: Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia' may not provide anyone with any real motivation to want to change anything, but it will, at the very least, provide more substantial information to the masses not that knowing in the first, fake news case. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

Official DVD Purchase Link