I, too, think it high time that big-budget filmdom revisited the legendary "Renaissance man" of Muslim Persia, Omar Khayyam. All the best ingredients are there for a whacking-good story: lovelorn longings from afar, old friendships prey to changing times, the quiet thrill of scientific observation, the bracing gusto of large-scale battle, and a lurking, relentless, lethal menace that strikes from a hidden base and undermines that most valuable of social necessities...trust. "What you are doing is not new, and will never be old," Omar declares to the ruthless Sheikh al-Jabal, Master of the Assassins. "Such men as you have arisen in every generation...each with another form of the ancient conspiracy to rule this Eath." And now, in our own generation--when the mouths of Omar and his contemporaries "have been stopped with the dust of a thousand years"--the danger that al-Qaeda presents to world security is a frightening reminder of the pertinency of Omar's prophecy. And although Omar pins his hopes on his calendric revisions to make his name memorable to men, it is his yearning, soulful quatrains celebrating the love of all-too-brief life...and the eternal life of love itself...that have done the job. I dare say that the broadcast networks could take this film and stretch it out over two nights as a mini-series ( although one reason the Cornel Wilde film works, in my opinion, is that it is quick and light on its feet ), or else HBO or one of the other cable channels could extend the tale into a full season's worth of episodes, so much is there to tell...but whenever and however a retelling shall come, to big screen or small, as a one-shot or as a series, I fervently hope that its author(s) shall retell it well and worthy of its subject and his world, as they would want it and do deserve it.
Posted on 23 August 2007 ( the 50th anniversary of the film's premiere )
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