Lion of the Desert

Nice movie to give our kids a sense of belonging as Muslims and to learn to understand that people really suffered for the religion and not to take it for granted. may Allah preserve our eeman.

I was only an 11 years old boy when I first watched this movie back in 1981 on a VHS tape. I still remember my tears falling in the last scene, when the Italians hanged Omar Al Mukhtar and the young boy (Ali) ran to the hanging stage and took the Omar's eye glasses in one of the most poetic scenes of the film. Unfortunately not so many people in the USA & Europe have seen this film, although it's a classic here in the Middle East. Anthony Quinn have portrait his role so accurate we could be easily mistaken him for an Arab. His role in this film rivals his role in Lawrence of Arabia, and we must give the director a credit for guiding Quinn to the true essence of this character. Lion of the Desert is a great epic film which deserves to be listed among the best films ever.

This movie symbolizes heroism , revenge , history, vanity, and a lot more.It has a great cast , Anthony at his best and reed proving that he can make a great bad guy.The story is just wonderfully rich with a lot of events , it's a true story about an Arabic Muslim hero who fought against the Italian's occupation of Libya with a great bravery and intelligence.the production is amazing , it's a really big budget movie that had all the authenticity of that period.And last but not least the director Mr. Akkad who did an mazing job on this movie. All i can say is that it's a must see and it's on my top 10 movies of all time.

I believe that one needs to be made of a special material to direct/produce such an epic. Moustapha believed in what he was doing when shooting the movie. He went to out of his way to make sure that everything he filmed was as real as possible. The battle scenes were planned with all detail but also the small scenes with Tony Quinn, Irene Papas or any other actor. It is a real pity that death has taken him before he could produce/direct "Salahadin", his long wanted project that would have shown the world another face of Islam. He tried with Omar Muhktar but I am sure that he would have done much better with Salahadin. Moustapha Akkad and his work as a film maker will be remembered.

It is absolutely a great film. For the acting, for storytelling, for the details, atmosphere and the feel of history. For something reminding the force of old fashion historical films. The scene between Sir John Gielgut and Anthony Quinn remains my favorite. A film for understand the rules of history and an admirable manifesto.

One of the great war/biography movies of our time. Perfect authentic picture with detailed weapons, equipment and military/local costumes of early 20th century. Perfect film/sound editing and great special effects with thousands of stunts at war scenes. Emotional Music by Maurice Jarre enriches the dramatic scenes of people's sufferings during war. Stunning performance by Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Irene Papas, Raf Vallone, Rod Steiger, John Gielgud, Gastone Moschin, Stefano Patrizi, Adolfo Lastretti, Sky du Mont and the great courageous youth characters of Rodolfo Bigotti and Eleonora Stathopoulou.