In the war waged by Bedouin patriots to combat Benito Mussolini's Italian colonization in Libya, Omar Mukhtar, the Bedouin resistance guerrilla leader, has committed himself to a war that cannot be won in his lifetime.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: UN
Release Date: 1-NOV-2005
Media Type: DVD

Average Customer Review: ( 97 customer reviews )
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"Lion of the Desert" opens in the year 1922 right after Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government. As many historians know, Il Duce quickly decided one way to bolster his fascist dictatorship was to present it as a renewed Roman Empire. One of his first priorities as a conquering Augustus was to renew efforts to pacify the Bedouin tribes in the Italian colony of Libya. After ascertaining that the leader of the Bedouin resistance is a man named Omar Mukhtar, Mussolini handpicks one of his most ruthless and capable generals, Rodolfo Graziani, as the new governor of the colony. Graziani's mission is to go to Libya and smash these pesky desert nomads in any way he sees fit. The Italian presence in Libya dates back some twenty years, and Il Duce isn't about to lose the territory on his watch. His general soon sails to Libya with a few novel ideas on how to defeat the Arab resistance, and he won't let anyone stand in his way. Graziani is such a ruthless tyrant that even Omar Mukhtar recognizes his name when told the general is now the new governor. Mukhtar isn't about to just let Graziani roll over his people, while the general intends to teach Mukhtar a lesson he and his people will never forget.

This movie overflows with magnificently choreographed battle sequences involving thousands of extras. Moreover, Akkad and his crew took great pains to reproduce the Italian military equipment down to the smallest details. It must have killed some of the craftsmen on the movie to watch months of painstaking labor go up in a two second explosion, something that happens on a frequent basis during the film as the Bedouins routinely destroy endless numbers of armored cars and tanks. According to the makers of "Lion of the Desert," Graziani was the first military commander to use tanks in the desert, and the movie portrays this historic battle in expansive detail. It is difficult to say which battle sequence is the best, although I would definitely lean towards the artillery barrage in the valley when Italian field cannons open up on entrenched Bedouins in the caves on the side of a mountain. The sound and fury of this encounter looks great on DVD, with the explosions of the shells literally booming out of my sound system.

The performances really make this film a winner. Rod Steiger plays Benito Mussolini with all of the swagger you would expect from an actor portraying the pompous fascist dictator. Oliver Reed works wonders as the cold-hearted Graziani. The best performance in the film is definitely Anthony Quinn's turn as Omar Mukhtar. Not only does he look like the actual historical figure, as seen by photographic comparisons made in one of the extras on the DVD, he strikes just the right balance of compassion and controlled ferocity. The meeting between Mukhtar and Graziani towards the end of the film fills the screen with drama, along with several statements made by Mukhtar that would apply to any conquered peoples on the face of the earth. The 162 minute runtime insures that most of the characters receive appropriate development.

Arguably, the most emotional and tense scenes in "Lion of the Desert" occur when Graziani institutes his plan to put the Bedouin population in concentration camps in order to force Mukhtar and his freedom fighters to surrender. The film ingeniously stages scenes of the concentration camps and then, without missing a beat, tacks on real film footage from the Italian occupation showing an aerial view of the prisons. Unlike Hitler with the Jews, the Italians did not gas Bedouins in these camps, but thousands of Bedouins did die from poor conditions. Moreover, Graziani ordered the fields burned and the execution by both bullet and noose of innocent civilians to avenge Italian battle casualties. For a PG rated movie, the atrocities and battle deaths are extremely bloody.

The DVD looks great, with a widescreen picture transfer and a slew of extras. The making of documentary outlines a score of interesting facts about the production of the film, such as the need to build an entire city in the desert to house and feed the thousands of people used during the production. According to the trailer and a few references in the making of documentary, the film originally bore the title "Omar Mukhtar." I think the title they went with was a smart choice, however, because it makes you think about who qualifies as the real lion of the desert. Is it Graziani or is it Mukhtar? Well, it is both men as they test each other's mettle through years of combat. If you like historical epics, be sure and watch this one soon.

36 of 38 found the following review helpful:

essential viewing - a masterpiece with riveting performancesFeb 10, 2004
By Nirmal Ghosh
''Destined to remain a dubious footnote in books of movie trivia'' ?? Reviewer Jeff Shannon, who I would bet would not warrant a footnote in any directory of influential film critics (thank God for that!) sounds like he would do well as a Bush policy advisor. This movie is amazing, with riveting performances from the entire caste. It is not only extremely well made with very convincing battlefield scenes and clinically dispassionate portrayals of brutality, and with a simple but telling script, it is also an all too rare look at the world from a different but necessary perspective. Omar Mukhtar was a real person, not a Hollywood hero. He was and remains an Arab nationalist hero. It is almost eerie how the film, even after more than 12 years, mirrors the logic of what is going on in Palestine and Iraq today. The more people see a film like this and are touched by it, the better they would understand the nuances of nationalism, spirituality, culture and geopolitics.

41 of 44 found the following review helpful:

An Epic Masterpiece!!May 07, 1999
By Samy S El Semman
"Lion of the Desert" tells the story of a school-teacher turned guerrilla fighter, trying to put a stop to Italian invasion and colonization of his country, Libya. This movie is excellently filmed, and the scenery and action are spell-binding. Most critics in America disliked this movie simply because it's about Libya, and an important episode of its history. But if you view this movie with an open mind, you'll see that not only is it well made, but it's also inspirational. The characters and conflicts portrayed are real, and I find the movie a fine tribute to the courage and tenacity of the Libyan patriots who fought and died against Fascist Italy, long-before Mussolini's forays into Abyssinia, Civil War Spain, and the Second World War. These people were fighting for their freedom and independence, and their heroic example should inspire all of us.

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

25th Anniversary set is a Disappointing repackaging of film epic.Feb 07, 2008
By Joe NY
You may want to hold on to your non-anamorphic original DVD release of this film epic. While the new 2 disk set offers both the Arabic and English versions of film, along with a new commentary by director, Moustapha Akkad, it does not include the still galleries or trailers found on the original disk. Also the framining on the new disk is incorrect. The original features a correct 2:35 image, while the new is 1:77:1, thereby removing some picture information on the left and right of the frame. The image is also soft and grainey in many spots, almost like a poor VHS transfer. The new set does carry over the 38 minutes making of featurette included with the original DVD release. I would have expected this 25th anniversary DVD to be an improvement over the original, but it is not. A disappointment.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:

Wow! Three of the Greatest Actors Ever in the Same Movie!Apr 12, 2007
By RRskaReb
As far as war movies go, this is one of the best. The action shots and battle scenes were for the most part excellent and not short on theatrical blood and gore...but there again, many of these scenes seem silly and exploitive somehow with the realization that the truth is infinitely more horrible. In the long run, this what I think the director was trying to convey to the viewer.

I read a review of this film shortly after it came out twenty five or so years ago. The reviewer said he saw this film with his son and he said that his son asked him towards the beginning during one of the battle scenes if the whole movie was like this? The reviewer agreed that it was...WRONG. The story was so much more than what on the surface appears to be a gratuitous shoot 'em up. There was a great amount of dialog that presented the background of the Italian-Libyan situation of the 1920s without ever becoming boring, and in fact left myself wanting to know even more about this corner of history.

The acting by one and all was excellent...really top notch. I never tire of Oliver Reed and wish he had made many, many more films. His portrayal of General Graziani was crisp. Reed's character had a commanding presence of that of a professional soldier that had served Italy from the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, to World War I and then as supreme Italian commander in North Africa during World War II. His character was certainly one of ambition and military professionalism. Without getting into the actual historical/political aspects, I will point out that Graziani was responsible for many military innovations in not only desert but also guerrilla warfare. Graziani, did, after get his Ho Chi Minh or Osama Bin Laden, and this has been largely ignored by history because of the Italian affiliation with Fascism, Hitler, and becoming in time an enemy commander to the United States, Britain and the other allies.

Anthony Quinn's portrayal of Omar Mukhtar was astounding. He even looked like him and kudos to the director for including actual photographs of the major personages in this sad true life play. Gentle, intelligent, devoted to his God, merciful as his God claims to be...Quinn brought all of that out in his character and one can only hope that Mukhtar was exactly such a man.

Rod Steiger-another actor, who like Oliver Reed, is unfortunately not well known by the general public. His portrayal of Mussolini was excellent in spite of the ever pervasive myopia film makers have concerning Hitler and Mussolini-cardboard men painted with theirs and our propaganda. Still, the film injected some humanity in the portrayal of 'Il Duce' by having Steiger point out that he, like Mukhtar, was a teacher. Other than that, you could imagine Mussolini's character stiffly posturing on a balcony and spouting off about the glories of a New Roman Empire. But, that wasn't Steiger's fault and he just naturally acted in a manner of supreme authority while at the same time coming across as being pragmatic, thoughtful, and having a connection to Roman history while at the same time making history.

The Italians in general were rather plastic and stiffly portrayed, but acting as professional military officers and representatives of the Fascist state, these portrayals were probably not too far off the mark. The film was careful to not show the Italians as mechanistic monsters and through at least four supporting actors showed that they were human beings capable of compassion. The portrayal of the Bedouin fighters and people was much more human and realistic, and the sympathy of the film definitely tilted in their favor. All in all, the film did try to show both sides of the story.

Perhaps the most heart wrenching parts dealt with the sacrifices of men's lives in trying to defend their families and the hardships and deaths brought upon the civilian populace. Particularly sad was the plight of the Bedouin in the concentration camps, and especially the sexual exploitation of women prisoners at the hands of the Italian soldiers.

I found one of the most stirring parts of the film to be the trial of Omar Mukhtar. The Italian defense lawyer (an Italian Army officer) did his best to point out that an acquittal was the most just thing to do as Mukhtar should have been considered to be a POW since he was taken under arms. This portion was strangely reminiscent of the Breaker Morant trial.

What I found particularly interesting was the array of authentic uniforms of the Italian Army and even the inclusion of Black Italian Colonial soldiers (probably Ethiopians?). Even better was the fact that the film makers recreated armored vehicles of the time rather than merely using surplus military hardware and trying to pass them off as the real deal as they disappointingly did in otherwise great war films such as Patton and The Battle of the Bulge.

The battle scenes were indeed good 'shootemups', though dummies dressed as Italian soldiers were painfully obvious in some shots. Also, I think one armored vehicle taking to the air and crashing in a heap during a battle scene was more than enough.

All in all a great film that at least informs us of something of history that most of us in the West would not otherwise be aware of. It is refreshing to see a film maker doing his very best to show the human aspects of an enemy that he certainly is not sympathetic to on cultural and religious grounds and is a testament to his own sense of humanity.

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