This movie was made by order of the Libyan dictator Col. Muhammad al-Qadhafi to glorify the figure of Omar al-Mukhtar, leader of the local tribes which opposed the Italian colonial rule in the 1930s through guerrilla actions. Of course, being this a propagandist flick, there is very little historical truth to be found in it. Italians are depicted as violent and ruthless imperialists, killing mercilessly the libyan "patriots", together with their women and children.
It looks funny to me that, to impersonate the lead character, an American actor like Anthony Quinn was chosen. Probably the choice was made to lure Western distributors to buy the movie, but this was obviously not enough to make palatable to European audiences such a bad movie.
I watched this movie on TV in 1982 during a trip to Japan, because obviously it was never shown in Italian movie theaters. It is strange that none of the reviewers thought about the fact that, while blaming the Italian colonization for all its evils, regardless of the fact that the British, the French and the Portuguese did much worse against the natives on their colonies in Africa and in the Middle East, Libya still relies today on the infrastructures built there by the Italians more than 60 years ago.
If you can, avoid this movie. It's not worth the time to watch it, let alone the money to rent it. Leave it to Col. Qadhafi's friends and supporters, because it shows history as what they like to believe to be true.
It looks funny to me that, to impersonate the lead character, an American actor like Anthony Quinn was chosen. Probably the choice was made to lure Western distributors to buy the movie, but this was obviously not enough to make palatable to European audiences such a bad movie.
I watched this movie on TV in 1982 during a trip to Japan, because obviously it was never shown in Italian movie theaters. It is strange that none of the reviewers thought about the fact that, while blaming the Italian colonization for all its evils, regardless of the fact that the British, the French and the Portuguese did much worse against the natives on their colonies in Africa and in the Middle East, Libya still relies today on the infrastructures built there by the Italians more than 60 years ago.
If you can, avoid this movie. It's not worth the time to watch it, let alone the money to rent it. Leave it to Col. Qadhafi's friends and supporters, because it shows history as what they like to believe to be true.