Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Anthony Quinn | ... | Omar Mukhtar | |
Oliver Reed | ... | Gen. Rodolfo Graziani | |
Irene Papas | ... | Mabrouka | |
Raf Vallone | ... | Colonel Diodiece | |
Rod Steiger | ... | Benito Mussolini | |
John Gielgud | ... | Sharif El Gariani | |
Andrew Keir | ... | Salem | |
Gastone Moschin | ... | Major Tomelli | |
Stefano Patrizi | ... | Lt. Sandrini | |
Adolfo Lastretti | ... | Colonel Sarsani | |
Sky du Mont | ... | Prince Amadeo (as Sky Dumont) | |
Takis Emmanuel | ... | Bu-Matari | |
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Rodolfo Bigotti | ... | Ismail |
Robert Brown | ... | Al Fadeel | |
Eleonora Stathopoulou | ... | Ali's Mother |
In Fascist Italy pre-World War II, the cruel General Rodolfo Graziani is directly assigned by Benito Mussolini to fight in the colonial war in Libya to vanquish the Arab nation. However, his troops are frequently defeated by the national leader Omar Mukhtar and his army of Bedouins. But the Butcher of Ethiopia and Libya uses a dirty war against the natives, slaughtering women, children, and aged people, to subdue Mukhtar. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
A pretty good desert epic with lots of action, this film is often thought to be a propaganda piece for Libya and Islam, with anti-Italian overtones.
Not quite.
The film is no more anti-Italian than it is pro-Islam. That is to say it is neither. It's a grand scale film that shows a Facist state's attempt to colonize and reign over north Africa in the early half of the 20th century, and how the native populace waged a guerilla war against this effort. It does not cast aspersions on Italians, nor pushes Islam as a religion. Italy happens to be swept up in a facist mindset whose forces are at odds with a people who are predominantly Muslim.
Anthony Quinn himself states in the "Making of..." documentary that the lead character, Omar al-Mukhtar, was not fighting for Islam, nor proselytizing in any way. He was one of many guerilla leaders who was trying to push the facists out of Libya. And even then he's only trying to regain that which was taken by facists, and not so much force Italians themselves to leave. Facists who, at the time, happened to be from Italy. From what I've seen the film does its best to accurately depict what went on during Italy's expansionist period under Mussolini, and shows this episode of political and military contention between the two sides in Libya.
There's lots of good acting here, and grand battle scenes. The cinematography is the usual style for this sort of film. Unfortunately the cast was chosen more for their names to sell the film than anything else. Even so they, Quin, Reed, Steiger and the rest do a pretty good job of showing us how the men of the time acted and behaved, and Quinn does en exceptional job of showing a humble but resolved Mukhtar. The battle scenes, for the most part, are pretty good. There's one or two hammy performances by a couple of the supporting cast members, but they're overshadowed by the rest of the film.
The DVD transfer is OK. Anchor Bay's gone to some extra lengths to put some extra goodies on the disk, but the film's image could've used a dual layer process.
If you're a fan of military epics this film should entertain. A good watch.