From the first time I saw this movie I thought it great. It is refreshing to see an historical movie done accurately and yet prove entertaining. I thought it was the finest performance ever given by Anthony Quinn. A couple of years ago I saw an interview with Quinn in which he said that it was the role he was proudest of and he was right about it.
It's not really amazing though that the such a great film was a commercial failure in the US certainly. One only has to recall the line about the right of settlers (Italian) "not one minute of right, to the pasture not one cow" to see the parallel drawn to events in a country some 1000 mile or so to the east. Italian justification of their occupation based on a two thousand year old pedigree got to the nub of today's headlines in the middle east.
Lybia, the 'Berber Kingdom', has a long history. It has been part of the civilized world and great empires dating back to Carthage and including Greeks, Romans, Moors, etc. For those interested in music they have the chance to see how 'bagpipes' were and are played from where they came. Early on the movie, when the young men return to the village, their dance is accompanied by bagpipes.
Omar's last words are brilliant and haunting: "As for me, I will live longer than my hangman". One of the militias in Lebanon, during its civil war, was called the 'Omar Mukhtar brigade'.
It's not really amazing though that the such a great film was a commercial failure in the US certainly. One only has to recall the line about the right of settlers (Italian) "not one minute of right, to the pasture not one cow" to see the parallel drawn to events in a country some 1000 mile or so to the east. Italian justification of their occupation based on a two thousand year old pedigree got to the nub of today's headlines in the middle east.
Lybia, the 'Berber Kingdom', has a long history. It has been part of the civilized world and great empires dating back to Carthage and including Greeks, Romans, Moors, etc. For those interested in music they have the chance to see how 'bagpipes' were and are played from where they came. Early on the movie, when the young men return to the village, their dance is accompanied by bagpipes.
Omar's last words are brilliant and haunting: "As for me, I will live longer than my hangman". One of the militias in Lebanon, during its civil war, was called the 'Omar Mukhtar brigade'.