Cheap Lion of the Desert (DVD) (Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger) (Moustapha Akkad) Price

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Customer Reviews of Lion of the Desert

Both Quinn and Reed deliver strong performances in their respective roles. Quinn does a good job at protraying how even a simple man can become a great leader performing extraordinary sacrifices when his peoples are oppressed. Reed also delivers an outstanding performance as a determined military leader who is assigned the difficult taks of eliminating an elusive group of guerrillas. Rod Steiger as Moussolini renders a strong performance as the brutish facist leader. How he sought to relieve the stresses of disenfranchised laborers by shipping them off to reconquer the long-lost imperial glory of their Roman predecessors.

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: a lesson learned all too late in Vietnam by the U.S. 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.

One of the Outstanding movies on independence struggles
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.

A hidden gem in the repetoire of great war films.
Given that not all war movies issued in DVD format by MGM and Fox are truly good, it is a shame that a masterpiece such as
"Lion of the Desert" is released in the more obscure Anchor Bay label. Aside from picture and sound quality that is rather good for such an old film, the story, the characters and the battle scenes exceed one's expectations. Anthony Quinn plays a wise teacher who moonlights as a rebellion leader in Italian-occupied Libya. Oliver Reed plays an Italian general who was sent to Libya by "Il Duce" Mussolini, played with humourous gusto by Rod Steiger, in 1929 to crush the rebellion. This film emphasizes that it was this general, named Rodolfo Graziani, who was the first to employ tanks in the desert, and one sees alot of light tanks being used against Bedouin horsemen. Aside from regular Italian army officers, there are fascist Black Shirt officers who, like Hitler's S.S. officers, just love being cruel and sadastic. If you like watching desert warfare, you will find this film to be more than satisfying and learn, like the arrogant Italians did, not to underestimate the resourceful Omar Mukhtar and his people's rebellion against colonization.