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I was too young to watch this film when it came out, but flipping channels yesterday I stumbled on this film for its notably high quality portrayal of pre-Soviet tribal Afghanistan. Hopefully they will replay it because I missed the first 20 minutes.

There was a monologue late in the film that I particularly found a purpo: something about being a different breed of man who will either self destruct or make death his whore, I believe. I think its quite telling that a Western film in 1971 was glamorizing this somewhat anti-social but powerful masculine quality. Today anyone in the "developed" world with those character traits would be written up with full sheet of clinical mental disorders and prescribed a regimen of "stay in your hospital bed" pills. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a testosterone flick, in fact its quite the opposite with very mortal and often pathetic characters. The action is broken by long stretches of grinding, quiet tension. There is a lot of art in the storytelling.

If they were remaking this movie today, it would probably come out something like "The Road Warrior"/"Mad Max".