Lion of the Desert (1981)

I have a certain degree of fascination with the life of Franco Fantasia. In addition to service in the Italian military during numerous conflicts and having bit parts in B-movies over the course of the following 5 decades, he made a great career for himself serving as a technical, military, and weapon adviser on almost every notable film made in Southern Europe. In this film he plays the Governor General following and advising a character who must have been a colleague of his in his military days, a quite menacing portrayal of General Rodolfo Graziano by the infamous unstable drunkard Oliver Reed.I count this among the many interesting aspects of the story of this film's production, along with the cooperation of the Italian armed forces (with subsequent banning in Italy for "dishonor to the Italian Military") and film industry (nice to see many Cinecitta B-movie veterans like Stefano Patrizi, Adolfo Lastretti, Tom Felleghy, etc. sharing scenes with big Hollywood talent such as Rod Steiger and John Gielgud) and the conspicuous involvement of the Qaddafi regime in funding this film. Director Moustapha Akkad had quite a storied career himself, being the only director daring enough to bring the story of the origins of Islam to the Western World with his previous film THE MESSAGE as well as play a central role in establishing John Carpenter and financing the HALLOWEEN franchise. All these elements feel like they couldn't possibly share the same space, but here they do and the results are surprisingly captivating in a way hearkening back to the best works of David Lean.To Western audiences, this film tells the otherwise cinematically untold story of a completely untaught war, that is the pacification of Libya by the Italian Army between World Wars 1 and 2. It meant the first large- scale use of concentration camps, modern technology including tanks, planes, and poison gas against completely overmatched rebels, and nearly genocidal repression of the existing Libyan population. Films like this need to be shown in schools to give history a life and faces to the facts and to make sure that these atrocities are properly learned from in future Western dealings with the Middle East. I personally applaud Moustapha Akkad and everything he stood for in trying to bridge the gap between cultures, and find it supremely tragic that it proved to be his eventual undoing. This film being such a financial failure trashed his directorial ambitions until 25 years later when he was killed in Jordan by terrorists while location scouting for a new and quite sadly unmade historical epic to focus on Saladin.Akkad loved the testosterone-laden approach to cinema, and here approaches historical cinema with all the enthusiasm of a small boy playing with thousands of army men in a giant sandbox. Unusually for historical epics, this film focuses very heavily on battles and little on personal drama and relationships, making it quite accessible for ADD Westerners such as myself and is authentic enough to history, pouring millions into tanks, uniforms, sets, etc. to the point that history buffs will get a kick out of it. Anthony Quinn really solidly displays some of his finest late-career talent in the role of Omar Mukhtar, the aging leader of the Senussi rebellion in Libya but unfortunately he's surrounded by a lot of poor casting choices for his fellow Libyans. Almost all are played by Europeans (Robert Brown, Andew Keir, John Gielgud, etc.) in bad makeup with the exception of criminally underused Takis Emmanuel.I personally prefer Akkad's directing style over David Lean in terms of action scenes and the adequate level of coverage. Two major highlights: the attack on an Italian caravan in the mountains and following artillery barrage (destroying much of the Libyan landscape) as well as the Italian assault on Kufra. Both scenes contain some surprisingly large level of production values including thousands of uniformed extras and no shortage of carnage, pyrotechnics, breathtaking special effects, and stuntwork. While there's maybe a few battles too many and the film suffers from overlength, it never sags and manages to impressively play both sides of the conflict in a fairly objective manner.This is not a perfect film, but among the historical epic category, a LION OF THE DESERT wins out as a top-shelf favorite film which accomplishes everything it sets out to do.

Well it is about the last years of Omar mukhtar Libyan freedom fighter and his encounter with one of most ruthless General Garzini who is sent to Libya by Mussolini to capture Omar Mukhtar dead or alive.And then as the movie goes on Garzini uses his cruel ways to capture Omar mukhtar but as Omar mukhtar out smarts him in his every ways but in the end he captures him by creating a wall of steel wires between Egypt and Lybia so cutting supplies of Omar mukhtar from Egypt leaving them desperate so that's how he captures him and then hangs him in the end.So this is a great war movie ever made I mean moustapha Akkad really did something with this movie he beautifully directed it I don't know what is the ultimate reason for it bombing at the box office.

*Spoiler/plot- Lion in the desert, 1981. After WW1, Facsist Italian government wishes to colonize North Africa in Libya to reproduce the Roman empire. The Bedouins fight this invasion and colonization for over 20+ years but the same Moslem leader. Finally the Muslim leader is captured and hanged.*Special Stars- Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, Irene Papas, John Geilgud.*Theme- The native people will fight dictators to the end.*Trivia/location/goofs- Filmed in Libya. Bankrolled by Muammar Gadfi and Govt assistance with troops was accomplished. One of the biggest disasters in film box office history, costs 35$ million only recovered 1$ million. 200,00 Bedouins were historically killed in this Facsist Italian war campaign. Maybe a bid idea if you're superstitious: This 1981 film was made and released on the 50th Anniversary of the execution by hanging of Omar Mukhtar who died in 1931. Extremely accurate military uniforms.*Emotion- While trying to reproduce the success of 'Lawrence of Arabia' with some of the same production heads, this film only succeeds in being a shabby 'knock-off'. The story line and script is provincial, boring, and shabby. The costumes and lead cast are quite good. The film is too slow in pacing and very predictable, especially for viewers who know little about this event in history. Except for some small scenes with fine acting sprinkled through this epic story, this film is a snore and a bomb. A brilliant failure on film.

Although I strongly disagree with the ban issued by Italian authorities (which represents an infringement upon the filmmaker's freedom of expression and the viewers' freedom of documentation), I cannot help but think that the film is pure negative propaganda against the Italian army and the Fascist colonial policy. Moreover, it is propaganda boarding on caricature. Rod Steiger as Mussolini is not much different from Charlie Chapling (or Mel Brooks) imitating Hitler. Antony Quinn, as Omar Mukhtar, is.....too good to be true. The film is certainly highly professional; the reconstruction of Palazzo Venezia (Mussolini's headquarters) stunning and the accuracy in re-creating the 1922 weapons very credible. Colonialism was definitely a sad page in Western History, but it cannot be judged with the 21st Century mentality. By depicting the Italians "all bad", and the Muslims "all good", I am afraid we open the road to a future film where the Westerners will be, once again, "all bad", whereas the "all good" will be Osama Bin Laden