Lion of the Desert roars for Libya's rebels (original) (raw)
Director: Moustapha Akkad
Entertainment grade: B
History grade: B–
Sidi Omar al-Mukhtar (Omar Mukhtar) led guerrilla resistance to Italian rule in the province of Cyrenaica in eastern Libya until he was captured and hanged in 1931.
Casting
Freedom fighter ... Anthony Quinn as Mukhtar
Omar Mukhtar is honoured in Libya as an Arab hero who offered staunch resistance to imperialism. It is surprising, then, that this biopic casts in almost every Libyan speaking role an American or European actor – notably, John Gielgud as Sharif al-Ghariyani, and Anthony Quinn as Omar Mukhtar himself. If you're thinking "typical Hollywood", think again. Far from being a Hollywood movie, Lion of the Desert was funded by Libyan dictator, fashion plate and occasional Charlie Sheen impersonator Muammar Gaddafi. Perhaps Gaddafi thought western audiences would take his film more seriously if he cast A-list British and American actors. They didn't. Lion of the Desert failed to roar at the box office, taking by some reports about 1.5millionagainstGaddafi′s1.5 million against Gaddafi's 1.5millionagainstGaddafi′s35 million investment. Which is a pity, because – if you can get past the Gaddafi association – it's actually a pretty good movie.
War
In 1929, Benito Mussolini (played by Rod Steiger, who contrives to be even camper and shoutier than the real Duce) decides to crush the Libyan rebellion. He sends Rodolfo Graziani (Oliver Reed) to take over the governorship. In reality, Graziani wasn't appointed until 1930, and then only as vice-governor. In the movie, Graziani's tenure has been conflated with that of his predecessor, Domenico Siciliani. Graziani took over a disastrous military campaign which had been going since 1923. Against Italian tanks and aeroplanes, Omar Mukhtar's active fighters numbered between 1,000 and 3,000, on horseback and for the most part lightly armed. Nevertheless, these Arab guerrillas trounced Mussolini's armed forces almost on a daily basis, fighting more than 250 skirmishes and engagements even in a slow year.
Genocide
The Italian colonialists ...
Graziani realises that he cannot defeat Omar Mukhtar with conventional methods. "I propose to concentrate the Bedouin," he says. "Put them behind wire in camps and keep them there until we find it prudent or safe to release them." This is true. Though the Italian administration had mooted setting up concentration camps before Graziani's arrival in Libya, it is fair to say that Graziani was the man most responsible for putting this into practice. The film's depiction of the policy itself is accurate. In 1930, up to 100,000 Bedouin men, women and children – about half the tribal population of Cyrenaica at the time – were herded into desert camps. The official Italian statistics are unreliable. Even so, it is plain that by 1933 only between one-third and half of the people in the camps had survived.
People
Bedouin women imprisoned ...
Gaddafi's money certainly bought the filmmakers some impressive battle scenes – filmed, of course, in real Libyan locations. Omar Mukhtar is brought down when his horse is shot. Reportedly, he was pinned under it, though the film has him thrown aside. Omar Mukhtar is captured and taken to Benghazi where, in the movie's best scene, Graziani interviews him. Quinn conveys Omar Mukhtar's steadfastness and dignity. Reed somehow captures the tone of the real Graziani's 1932 memoir Cirenaica Pacificata, which reveals that the Italian commander was almost jealous of his Arab foe's strategic brilliance, his moral purity and even his martyrdom. Lion of the Desert nearly makes Graziani too sympathetic. He is shown graciously returning Omar Mukhtar's spectacles, which were stolen in a previous battle. In fact, transcripts of the secret proceedings around Omar Mukhtar's show trial at Benghazi reveal that the guerrilla leader had to ask for them back – a request his interrogators considered outrageous.
Execution
Big budget firepower, courtesy of Gaddafi
Twenty thousand concentration camp inmates and Cyrenaican notables were forced to watch Omar Mukhtar's death. The film attempts to provoke an emotional response by focusing on a small boy in the crowd, implying that he is the next generation of Libyan rebel. Unfortunately, the result is schmaltzy. The scene did not require further adornment: the hanging of an unbowed, elderly guerrilla (Omar Mukhtar estimated his age as 73; some historians claim 69) would have been more than affecting enough.
Verdict
Omar Mukhtar has been adopted as a figurehead by many Libyan political movements, including both Gaddafi himself and the rebels currently fighting him. Lion of the Desert is half an hour too long and hammy in places, but its depiction of Italian colonialism and Libyan resistance is broadly accurate.