Lion Of The Desert - Coasting
Quick Thoughts: Lion Of The Desert (1980)
Made by Moustapha Akkad, this is the Libyan film of the series.
Lion of the Desert is a film I had to watch in chunks as, I'm sorry to say, it just would not stop putting me to sleep. There is nothing particularly bad about this film, but its three hour movement between rather unaffecting war sequences composed mainly of stunt men jumping off of horses in a manner that does not seem at all controlled or to some degree 'safe', is a little daunting. As historically intriguing as this film is - it follows Libyan resistance fighter, Omar Mukhtar, as he battles with the colonising Italians - it manages to dilute its story with rigid characterisation and a confused management of empathy. The latter really sticks out in the battle scenes (a haze of these is all that comes to mind when I think of this film). The battles are weakly supported by an unenthusiastic score, are constructed with some rather procedural montage and, as alluded to, feature repetitive stunts that all give a subdued impression of chaos and danger. In short, the battles feel staged and, worst of all, fail to capture the strategic ingenuity of the resistance fighters - a key source of drama. In addition to this, they do not support the various familial dramas that, through the plot, feed into the battles. There are certain sequences in which Mukhtar fights to free his people from concentration camps. The drama surrounding this, whilst predictably staged, does hurt to watch. However, the conflagration of drama in the battles feels entirely disengaged with the emotional intensity of the catalysis of war: the pain of people. The spectacle motivating much of the narrative then ultimately fails to engage catharsis. Furthermore, it prevents the film from pretty much caricaturing the Italians and making rather basic statements such as: militarised imperialism is rather evil. In total, I did not manage to engage Lion of The desert in a manner at all satisfactory. Distracted and sleepy, I coasted through this, unable to give too much attention. However, have you seen Lion of the Desert? What are your thoughts?
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Lion of the Desert is a film I had to watch in chunks as, I'm sorry to say, it just would not stop putting me to sleep. There is nothing particularly bad about this film, but its three hour movement between rather unaffecting war sequences composed mainly of stunt men jumping off of horses in a manner that does not seem at all controlled or to some degree 'safe', is a little daunting. As historically intriguing as this film is - it follows Libyan resistance fighter, Omar Mukhtar, as he battles with the colonising Italians - it manages to dilute its story with rigid characterisation and a confused management of empathy. The latter really sticks out in the battle scenes (a haze of these is all that comes to mind when I think of this film). The battles are weakly supported by an unenthusiastic score, are constructed with some rather procedural montage and, as alluded to, feature repetitive stunts that all give a subdued impression of chaos and danger. In short, the battles feel staged and, worst of all, fail to capture the strategic ingenuity of the resistance fighters - a key source of drama. In addition to this, they do not support the various familial dramas that, through the plot, feed into the battles. There are certain sequences in which Mukhtar fights to free his people from concentration camps. The drama surrounding this, whilst predictably staged, does hurt to watch. However, the conflagration of drama in the battles feels entirely disengaged with the emotional intensity of the catalysis of war: the pain of people. The spectacle motivating much of the narrative then ultimately fails to engage catharsis. Furthermore, it prevents the film from pretty much caricaturing the Italians and making rather basic statements such as: militarised imperialism is rather evil. In total, I did not manage to engage Lion of The desert in a manner at all satisfactory. Distracted and sleepy, I coasted through this, unable to give too much attention. However, have you seen Lion of the Desert? What are your thoughts?
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Previous post:
Headshot - Mixed
Next post:
End Of The Week Shorts #87
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
