This film is interesting from several points of view. One of them is that it addresses a little-remembered page of the colonial past: the Senussi rebellion in Libya lasted for decades and marked a generation of Libyans, whereas for Europeans it was a dramatic situation that the devastation of World War II shot to the footnotes of the history books.
First, some history highlights: Italy did not have colonies until the beginning of the 20th century and was one of the last European countries to move towards African colonization. In 1911, after a short war with the Ottomans, they conquered the coast of Libya. The advancing decades allowed the Italians, through successive agreements with other colonial powers, to acquire more territories in the region. However, the change of administration was very displeasing to the Libyan Berbers, led by the Senussi tribe. Thus began the Libyan resistance to Italian colonization, and Omar Al Mukhtar emerged as the leader of the resistance. When he took power in 1922, Benito Mussolini bet on the resolution of this conflict, already lasting for eleven years, using all the means and all the brutality that he could dispose of, in case it was necessary.
The film clearly takes the side of the rebels and does not shy away from showing all the brutality and crudity of the Italian troops and their generals, particularly General Graziani. This being a proven historical fact, I am doubtful when I read some critics who point out the partiality of the film's account to the fact that the production was financed by Libyan President Muammar Al-Gaddafi, a dictator who opened his country's coffers to finance more than a western film production. But, in fact, it is still an ironic fact...
The film is not remarkable, and at times it looks like a poor duplicate of "Lawrence of Arabia". Even so, it is also not a bad film, and it certainly deserved to have had better luck at the box office... I have certainly seen worse films that have fared far better in the difficult task of convincing the public to drop some cash and enter the theater. Moustapha Akkad, the director, reveals that he has enough competence to deal with the millionaire production he has in hand, which has hundreds of people, means and money. Even so, the script seems coarse, some dialogues do not work and the editing were not happy. To make things even more difficult, the film is very long and has a very uneven pace and an anti-climatic and excessively slow ending.
The cast consists of several big names from the industry of the time, with Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed securing the main characters. Both are excellent actors and are in great shape here, their performance being one of the most redeeming and saving elements of the film. Quinn gives us a dignified, restrained, chivalrous and almost romantic interpretation of the rebel hero, whereas Reed could hardly be more dark, cold and pragmatic. Irene Papas, another very competent actress, plays a minor role, but full of drama, and Rod Steiger was quite good. The cast also has works well delivered by actors such as Raf Vallone, Sky du Mont, Stefano Patrizi and others.
Technically, it is a film where the effort, very strong, stands out to be historically rigorous and to give credibility to each scene, dress or prop. The careful choice of filming locations helped a lot and adds visual beauty to the film. Unfortunately, the cinematography did not match the effort: the washed colors and low contrast take away its impact and beauty. The visual and sound effects are discreet but work effectively and the soundtrack does its job well.
First, some history highlights: Italy did not have colonies until the beginning of the 20th century and was one of the last European countries to move towards African colonization. In 1911, after a short war with the Ottomans, they conquered the coast of Libya. The advancing decades allowed the Italians, through successive agreements with other colonial powers, to acquire more territories in the region. However, the change of administration was very displeasing to the Libyan Berbers, led by the Senussi tribe. Thus began the Libyan resistance to Italian colonization, and Omar Al Mukhtar emerged as the leader of the resistance. When he took power in 1922, Benito Mussolini bet on the resolution of this conflict, already lasting for eleven years, using all the means and all the brutality that he could dispose of, in case it was necessary.
The film clearly takes the side of the rebels and does not shy away from showing all the brutality and crudity of the Italian troops and their generals, particularly General Graziani. This being a proven historical fact, I am doubtful when I read some critics who point out the partiality of the film's account to the fact that the production was financed by Libyan President Muammar Al-Gaddafi, a dictator who opened his country's coffers to finance more than a western film production. But, in fact, it is still an ironic fact...
The film is not remarkable, and at times it looks like a poor duplicate of "Lawrence of Arabia". Even so, it is also not a bad film, and it certainly deserved to have had better luck at the box office... I have certainly seen worse films that have fared far better in the difficult task of convincing the public to drop some cash and enter the theater. Moustapha Akkad, the director, reveals that he has enough competence to deal with the millionaire production he has in hand, which has hundreds of people, means and money. Even so, the script seems coarse, some dialogues do not work and the editing were not happy. To make things even more difficult, the film is very long and has a very uneven pace and an anti-climatic and excessively slow ending.
The cast consists of several big names from the industry of the time, with Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed securing the main characters. Both are excellent actors and are in great shape here, their performance being one of the most redeeming and saving elements of the film. Quinn gives us a dignified, restrained, chivalrous and almost romantic interpretation of the rebel hero, whereas Reed could hardly be more dark, cold and pragmatic. Irene Papas, another very competent actress, plays a minor role, but full of drama, and Rod Steiger was quite good. The cast also has works well delivered by actors such as Raf Vallone, Sky du Mont, Stefano Patrizi and others.
Technically, it is a film where the effort, very strong, stands out to be historically rigorous and to give credibility to each scene, dress or prop. The careful choice of filming locations helped a lot and adds visual beauty to the film. Unfortunately, the cinematography did not match the effort: the washed colors and low contrast take away its impact and beauty. The visual and sound effects are discreet but work effectively and the soundtrack does its job well.