Lion who won the war

An authentic depiction of how an individual led the Libyan resistance against Mussolini’s fascists, Lion of the Desert is worth a watch, writes Ervell E. Menezes

Set in Libya between the two world wars, Lion of the Desert is a powerful drama of the resistance put up by Libyan guerilla groups against the occupation by the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Against heavy odds these fighters under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar (Anthony Quinn) took these fascists on in the Green mountains where they were vulnerable (like the Vietnamese did to the Americans decades later) and inflicted heavy casualties on their numerically superior force. That the fascists finally got to the man is now history but not before winning their respect and admiration.

The film first released in 1986 has now been dubbed in Hindi under the title Omar Mukhtar and the recent Iraqi war makes the subject even more relevant, showing how the Mojahideen shows grit and determination in defending their land and also exposing the expansionist designs of the Italian fascists.

Anthony Quinn plays the lead role with verve even at his ripe old age and Oliver Reed is general Rodolfo Grasini, known as the Butcher. Rod Steiger plays Mussolini. All three of them are now dead but their performances give one an insight into their histrionic skills when they once formed the cream of Hollywood talent. The Italian-born Raf Vallone is also cast in a cameo role.

A simple teacher, Omar is a man of great determination and with little airs. A man of his word, he does not believe in compromise, for him everything is just black and white. "We will not surrender, we will fight and we will win," he says and if they didn’t win the next generation would win or the next but they would never continue the battle. "I will outlive your hangman," he says. It is a powerful narrative by Syrian-born director Moustapha Akkad infuses the film with copious doses of patriotism and the script littered with good lines like "money, like glory, is not permanent."

The strategy used by Omar is simple but clever and earns the admiration of even the enemy and though the film is 180 minutes long it is quite absorbing. The war scenes are deftly handled and the characters real flesh-and-blood ones and grow on the viewer because of their honest indignation.
It may seem a wee bit dated but it is surely more welcome than some of the piffle that passes for entertainment these days. Like for example the Keanu Reeves horror movie Constantine. The younger generation will also have a rare chance of seeing the stars of yesteryear though Steiger as Mussolini is quite bad.

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