Lion of desert (1 Viewer)

[Poppo]

This is the title of one of the best and unknow historical-war movies I have ever seen.

Fascist Italy committed crimes against civilians during the conquest of its " empire", both in Abissinya( italian Ethiopia, Somalia) and Lybia.
In the italian oriental Africa some villages were gassed by planes ( against the Geveva conference' s rules) to break the heroic resistance of those people, and in some occasions many innocent civilians killed ( in one occasion after the general Graziani ' s attempted bombing in Somalia).

Similar crimes were committed in Lybia to break the local resistance and in this great movie starring Antonhy Quinn, Rod Steiger, Raf Vallone is told the real story of Omar Mukhtar, an old teacher, a wise quiet man, who organized a long and strong resistance against the modern( for them) italian army.

This movie was censorshiped in Italy for years.

 

[marco55]

Yes I saw this.Really good movie.
Mark

 

[lancer]

This is a good one. There was a thread about this film a while back, here on the forum. -- Al

 

[mikemiller1955]

FANTASTIC MOVIE!!!

great casting...tons of stars...

well..great casting except John Gielgud...

as great an actor as he is...

he can not play a Libyan sheik convincingly to me...

 

[mikemiller1955]

wasn't this the movie where the Lybian resistance tied their feet together so they couldn't panic and retreat?

 

[Poppo]

The italian generals guilty of war crimes didn' t pay .... Graziani, Badoglio and others who committed atrocities in Africa and occupied Jugoslavia. I even read that in Graziani' s home village a torso statue of him has been made.

 

[Mitch]

one man's war criminal is another's Hero. Always was and always will be
Mitch

The italian generals guilty of war crimes didn' t pay .... Graziani, Badoglio and others who committed atrocities in Africa and occupied Jugoslavia. I even read that in Graziani' s home village a torso statue of him has been made.

 

[WesternOutlaw]

As a big fan of N. African desert movies, a friend had recommend this film and I purchased last year. It had a few action scenes but I was a bit disappointed with the overall movie. Rather long and I ended up falling asleep. Perhaps it was my DVD copy, but the quality wasn't very good; hard to hear the dialogue.

Interesting to read the thoughts of others.