Home / Lion of the Desert

Lion of the Desert

Year:

1981

Duration:

173 min | UK:156 min (DVD)

Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | War

IMDB rate:

8.4

Director:

Moustapha Akkad

Details

Country: Libya

Release Date: 1981-05-16

Filming Locations: Italy

Cast

Actor

Character

Oliver Reed

Lion of the Desert

Raf Vallone

Anthony Quinn

Omar Mukhtar

Irene Papas

Mabrouka

Rod Steiger

Benito Mussolini

John Gielgud

Sharif El Gariani

Andrew Keir

Salem

Gastone Moschin

Major Tomelli

Stefano Patrizi

Lt. Sandrini

Adolfo Lastretti

Colonel Sarsani

Sky du Mont

Prince Amadeo (as Sky Dumont)

Takis Emmanuel

Bu-Matari

Rodolfo Bigotti

Ismail

Robert Brown

Al Fadeel

Eleonora Stathopoulou

Ali's Mother

Luciano Bartoli

Captain Lontano

Claudio Gora

President of Court

Giordano Falzoni

Judge at Camp

Franco Fantasia

Graziani's Aide

Ihab Werfali

Ali

Ewen Solon

Loris Bazzocchi

(as Loris Bazoki)

Alec Mango

Filippo De Gara

(as Filippo Degara)

George Sweeney

Captain Biagi

Luciano Catenacci

Italian Soldier

Victor Baring

Pietro Brambilla

Young Soldier

Pietro Tordi

Field Marshal

Massimiliano Baratta

Capture Captain

Mario Feliciani

Lobitto

Gianfranco Barra

Sentry

Piero Gerlini

Barillo (as Pietro Gerlini)

Lino Capolicchio

Captain Bedendo

Benito Mussolini

Himself (archive footage)

Mario Adorf

(uncredited)

Claudio Cassinelli

Prisoner Escort Guard (uncredited)

Mark Colleano

Infantry Corporal (uncredited)

Tom Felleghy

Italian General (uncredited)

Scott Richard Fensome

Machine Gun Sergeant (uncredited)

Alfonso Giganti

Military Judge (uncredited)

Angelo Ragusa

Italian Soldier (uncredited)

Amedeo Salamon

Man watching the trail (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

The number of Bedouins that were killed in the Libyan holocaust numbered around 200,000 people.

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Omar Mukhtar was captured when his horse is shot and this is accurately depicted in the film. However, in real life, Mukhtar was apparently trapped under the equine whereas the film cinematically and visually fictionalizes this though and has Mukhtar thrown from it.

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This movie's opening prologue states: "The characters in this film are real and the events based on historical facts."

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Goofs

Mussolini is talking to Graziani in the opening when he looks the map of Libya, and says that all the green land is for Italy, but this is a topographical map that shows land greener as it becomes lower by sea level. 90% of the area of Libya is desert.

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During the narrated introduction immediately following the opening credits, the Earth is depicted revolving backwards - west-to-east instead of east-to-west.

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When Diodiece meets with Graziani and Prince Amadeo about starting peace talks, a map behind him, depicting the Horn of Africa, is inaccurate. The map clearly shows no borders between Ethiopia and the adjoining Italian colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, a situation that existed only after Ethiopia had been conquered by Italy and was united with the other two territories as the colony of Italian East Africa. However, this did not occur until 1936, and since the film takes place from 1929-1931, such a map could not possibly have existed at the time of the three men's meeting.

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Quotes

Omar Mukhtar: We do not kill *prisoners*!

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Gen. Rodolfo Graziani: I want to ask you one question. Why did you keep going for so long? I mean, surely you didn't hope to drive us out of Libya with so little, did you?

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Omar Mukhtar: We will never surrender. We win or we die. And don't think it stops there. You will have the next generation to fight; and after the next, the next. As for me, I will live longer than my hangman.

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