Lion of the Desert( 1981)

M O V I E R E V I E W

Money may not be able to buy happiness, but Moustapha Akkad’ s‘ Lion of the Desert’ demonstrates that money, at least a very great deal of it- reportedly more than $ 30 million- can buy enough talent, know-how and extras to make a big historical movie that is at least technically respectable and occasionally spectacular in its geography. The film is the biggest piece of movie partisanship to come out of the Middle East or North Africa since Otto Preminger’ s‘ Exodus’. It is the story of Omar Mukhtar, the Bedouin leader who fought a brilliant, relentless guerrilla war against the Italian invaders of Libya from 1911 until his capture and execution by Mussolini’ s forces in 1931. The film is a very official-looking work. HAL Craig’ s screenplay doesn’ t fool around with too many‘ personal’ stories. Though there are the obligatory sequences involving bereaved Arab mothers and orphaned children, the film’ s view aspires to be epic; that of nation fighting against nation. What we know about the leading characters we learn from seeing them carrying out their official duties. Chief amongst them are Mukhtar( Anthony Quinn), as he directs the desert warfare, meets Italian representatives in peace talks designed to fail( by the Italians), and finally at his trial and execution; General Graziani( Oliver Reed), an ambitious, brutal officer who finally triumphs over the Bedouins, and Mussolini, impersonated by Rod Steiger, as he struts around his palace, issuing orders with a sneer. Even Irene Papas, who plays the wife of one of Mukhtar’ s aides, looks official, if only because she has reached that unfortunate time in her career when her mere appearance becomes an official representation of grief. The film, which has been well photographed by Jack Hildyard, is virtually an unending series of big battle scenes. These are interrupted from time to time by scenes set in Italian planning rooms or Bedouin planning oases and by montages depicting the ferocious means by which the invaders eventually subdued the Bedouins. There are also times when the film seems to be drawing parallels between Mukhtar’ s position in the Arab world and that of Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, as when the Italians refuse to negotiate with Mukhtar on the grounds that he, like Mr. Arafat, does not represent an independent nation. I suspect also that the movie wouldn’ t be unhappy if we should equate the camps the Italians put the Bedouins into with the Palestine refugee camps in Lebanon and even the Nazi concentration camps, though there are no gas ovens in sight in the film.‘ Lion of the Desert’ is a canny film, though it’ s probably a film from which one will take just what one took into it. No expense has been spared. In addition to those already mentioned, the cast includes Raf Vallone, as a‘ good’ if weak Italian officer, and John Giulgud as a‘ bad’ Bedouin, one who collaborates with the enemy. The actors are as adequate as their roles in what is essentially a pageant allow.