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IMDb > Ashanti (1979)
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Overview

User Rating:
4.9/10   532 votes
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Down 13% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Richard Fleischer
Writers:
Stephen Geller (screenplay)
Alberto Vázquez Figueroa (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for Ashanti on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
April 1979 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Adventure | Drama more
Tagline:
Only two men could rescue her. One driven by love, the other by revenge. more
Plot:
Dr. Anansa Linderby is kidnapped in a medical mission in Africa by a slave trader. From this moment... more | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
Red Sonja remake 'will start filming next year'
 (From The Geek Files. 16 June 2009, 11:59 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Michael Caine says it's his worst film. He's wrong - by a fair margin, too - though it's certainly a mediocre work. more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Michael Caine ... Dr. David Linderby

Peter Ustinov ... Suleiman

Kabir Bedi ... Malik
Beverly Johnson ... Dr. Anansa Linderby

Omar Sharif ... Prince Hassan

Rex Harrison ... Brian Walker

William Holden ... Jim Sandell
Zia Mohyeddin ... Djamil
Winston Ntshona ... Ansok
Tariq Yunus ... Faid
Tyrone Jackson ... Dongaro
Akosua Busia ... The Senoufo girl
Jean-Luc Bideau ... Marcel
Olu Jacobs ... Commissioner Batak
Johnny Sekka ... Captain Bradford
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Ashanti, Land of No Mercy
more
Runtime:
118 min
Country:
France
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Filming Locations:
Israel more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
George MacDonald Fraser worked as a script doctor for scenes concerning Omar Sharif as the Arab Prince. more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
20 out of 21 people found the following comment useful:-
Michael Caine says it's his worst film. He's wrong - by a fair margin, too - though it's certainly a mediocre work., 5 January 2005
4/10
Author: Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England

Michael Caine has always claimed that Ashanti was "the only film (he) did purely for the money" as well as "the worst film he ever starred in". Hold on, Michael, weren't you in The Swarm and Hurry Sundown? And weren't both of those films a good deal worse than Ashanti? Perhaps Caine remembers only too begrudgingly the physically punishing demands of filming an action film in searing 130 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures (the director, Richard Fleischer, was hospitalised as a result of sun-stroke during the shoot). What Ashanti actually emerges as is not the career low-point of Michael Caine. Instead, it is a very average chase thriller with a talented cast, exotic locations, boring stretches and a highly formulaic storyline.

Dr. David Linderby (Caine) is a W.H.O medic who is left devastated when his black wife Anansa (Beverly Johnson) goes missing during an aid trip to an African tribal village. Linderby gradually realises that his wife has been snatched by slave traders - led by Suleiman (Peter Ustinov) - and he sets off on a continent-wide pursuit which eventually leads to the Middle East.

Along the way, big stars pop in for ineffective and superfluous guest roles. William Holden has a poor cameo as a chopper pilot; Omar Sharif displays little of his customary charm or grace as a pampered Arab millionaire; Rex Harrison looks rightfully bored during his brief role as a helpful contact who assists Caine in his quest. The film is based on a best-seller entitled Ebano, by the little-known author Alberto Vasquez-Figueroa, but the suspense that made the book so popular is largely absent in this adaptation. Ustinov is charismatic as the slaver (he seems in all his movies to be incapable of giving bad performances), and Caine generates believable anguish as the man who thinks he'll never see his wife again. There are occasional flashes of action, but on the whole Ashanti is quite slow-moving. All in all, it is a resistible piece of action hokum - not by any stretch as awful as Caine has frequently suggested, but not a very inspiring film and certainly a let-down from all the talent involved.

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