Rating: 
Summary: To Never Surrender
Review: Moustapha Akkad's film 'Lion of the Desert' accurately portrays Fascist Italy's attempts at regaining its Roman splendor in North Africa under Mussolini in the 1920s. Frustrated by the incompetence of his military suboordinates, Moussolini assigns General Rudolpho Graziani (Oliver Reed) to finish off the Bedouin resistance in Lybia led by the religious cleric Omar Mukhtar (Anthony Quinn.)
Both Quinn and Reed deliver strong performances in their respective roles. Quinn does a good job at protraying Omar Mukhtar: a religious cleric who leads simple men to fight against colonialism. Reed also delivers an outstanding performance as a determined military leader who is assigned the difficult taks of eliminating the elusive group of guerrillas led by Omar Mukhtar. Rod Steiger as Moussolini renders a strong performance as the brutish fascist leader; how he sought to relieve the socio-economic stresses of Italy by sending landless peasants to conquer and colonize Lybia and thereby reestablish Italy's long-lost imperial glory of its Roman predecessor.
The movie does a good job at showing the military tactics of the time and the incompetence of the Italian military leadership prior to Graziani's appointment. The movie also accurately portrays how ordinary peoples with no military training can become extraordinary soldiers against an invader when they know their territory and have support of the local populace: something all-too relevant with the present turmoil in the Middle East. Although the cast is strong, the movie was evidently made with a specific audience in mind. Even accepting the characters and context of the story, the script is strongly pro-Islam, pan-Arab, and somewhat anti-western: I therefore give it only 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Why is Jeff Shanon so hostile toward this Film?
Review: My first question is why Mr.Shannon attacks movie the Messege in his review of this film. I would like to remind Shanon that the Message was a big success in Europe and in particular in England. Even Quinn himself said that the faith of the muslims in that film revived his confidence in himself. As far as " being critically roasted", both these films were panned only in America and for obvious reasons. They may not have had the qualtiy of a Hollywood film, but they were both made under difficult circumstances and under financial difficulties. Also I would like to remind Shannon that even in crtically harsh United States the Messsage was still nominated for best score Oscar. Finally, I would like to say that Shannon needs to check before making comments otherwise his remakrs will be roasted by critics.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally underated masterpiece
Review: Probably one of the most well done war films of the 20th century. Anthony Quinn is brillant and truly shows his great acting skills in this epic. This is a very emotional as well as informative movie about a history we usually do not read or hear about, being the Libyan history. Battle scenes are, in a word, breathtaking!
Rating: 
Summary: Forget the Politics; this is a good film!
Review: Regardless of the fact that this movie was financed by Qadaffi, this epic starring Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, and Rod Steiger is still worthy of a viewing and, if interested, a purchase. The scope of the film makes it comparable to the more critically praised "Lawrence of Arabia" with an awarding-winning performance from Quinn. I viewed this one in a sparsely crowded theater over twenty years ago and found it to be one of the best of the genre. Unfortunately, the large historical epics were on their way out at the time in favor of more teen-oriented fare. Hopefully, the ensuing years may be kinder and the movie will garner some attention as being more than a curiosity, as mentioned by an earlier review.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Outstanding movies on independence struggles
Review: The 'Lion of the Desert' is one of the outstanding movies made about the independence struggles of the peoples of Africa and Asia against European imperialist-fascism. In this instance it is the story of North African Bedouin patriots deadlocked in a life & death struggle against Mussolini and his invading barbarian hordes between the two World Wars in the late 1920s. Anthony Quinn delivers an outstanding performance as the legendary resistance leader Omar Mukhtar, a man of compassion, tolerance and great skill. [Quinn also bore an uncanny resemblance to Mukhtar,and would later say that Mukhtar was one of his favourite roles in cinema]Well researched and brilliantly directed, the movie offers insight into the lives of both the invaders and the freedom fighters.
Oliver Reed is excellent as the severe Rudolpho Graziani, Mussolini[played with accuracy by Rod Steiger]'s top general.The movie is well balanced, it shows the decency on the Italian side as well, the three officers,Gudici, Santini and Lontano, heeded their conscience and were not blind to the atrocities[ including the concentration camps that were used to cordon off the Bedouin populace, use of bombs and poison gas on civilian settlements,incidently, the British also employed airplanes and bombs in the countries they occupied to try and pacify civilian resistance, particularly in the Indian subcontinent and Palestine] that were being committed against the natives.
Like the movie "Michael Collins", "Lion of the Desert" shows that the desire to be free of foreign despotism surpasses self-preservatation.
"Lion of the Desert" is a must for all who admire freedom and courage in the face of adversity and injustice.
Rating: 
Summary: Lion with little bite
Review: The movie attempts to show the struggle not only of Mukhtar but his people. I agree with the reviewer the acting is ordinary and the theatrics of the struggle of the Libyan people against the 'ogres', the Italian Army is very melodramatic. Some fight scenes are very good but the movie is too long and is biased in the way it portrays the Italian Army as murderous heartless thugs. Romantic ideals are used rather than a balanced historic perspective. I can understand why this movie was shunned in Europe and Nth America.
Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC
Review: This film is a typical example of how HollyWood can be cruel and unjust to certain film subjects. Just compare it to any simmilar hollywood historical epics which were nominated for dozens of Oscars, such as Braveheart, The english patient, and even chindlers list, and you will find that Lion of the desert is no better or worse than any of those films. You watch the film and judje for your self if at the verry least the performance of Quinn did not deserve better credit at the Oscars. The same goes for the painstakeing effort of the director Akkad. One has to wonder however, wether or not the respounse to this film would have been different if it was about a different subject matter other than a classic old arab muslim hero! That said the film has all the ellement of a grate epic, great war sequenses, grate hero, great story, and it is all true. In my opinion a must see!
Rating:
Summary: Mahatma Gandhi of Libya
Review: This is a crown in Libya's history! You may watch this movie to learn more about Libya's independence or you may watch it to know for a fact that nothing lasts but people's right!!!It teaches you that with belief in God and determination, the nation can conquer their raped land no matter how powerful the enemy was. Regardless of your view or opinion about Libya today, this movie is a MUST SEE and a LESSON for world nations and land invaders!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie
Review: This is a great movie. I thought the acting was fantastic and the heroic character of Omar El-muktar is well documented in history books (e.g., The Sunusi of Cyrenica, Oxford University, 1949). This movie was intended as a documentation of a hero's life; it was never meant to generate revenue! The release of the movie was limited, especially in N. America, due to the current unfavorable image of Libya in the west and to protest and pressure from Italian communities, which explains the low revenue mentioned in the editorial. Even today in Canada good luck finding this movie in your neighborhood video store. Forget editorials. You will love this movie!
Rating:
Summary: Impressive documentary period drama
Review: This is a true historic event that show how a seventy years old school teacher turned freedom fighter does not bow his head against invading armies and choose to live and die with pride. I watched it several times over and Over.
I had bought it on DVD. Good!
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