a Great movie

Spoiler alert:

That was the young officer who early on had been declared a hero after the rest of his brigade was killed off (he was spared by Mukhtar and sent back with his battle flag), but who later refused the order to hang the men and women in the concentration camp and was arrested for insubordination.

Graziani had refused to court martial the officer, since he was officially a hero, and instead sent him into combat so that he would die "honorably" for his country. Clearly, the vicious Fascist Commander who shot him did so under orders, as retribution for his disobedience, but under cover of the attack, so that it would appear he'd been killed in the fighting.

Of course, a few minutes later that Commander himself met a violent (and well-deserved) end at the hands of one of Mukhtar's men, which for the audience was deserved punishment for his cowardly murder of the innocent young officer.

I agree with you. It's a great film. It is uncompromising and unrelenting in its depiction of violence and injustice done to the Libyans and it features lots of bloody battle scenes. However, I don't think the film condones or glorifies violence and blood shed. It has a peace-keeping message. The Libyans are depicted as harmonious and peaceful and want nothing to do with war. The Italians came and stole their land and freedom. The Libyans thus had no choice but to defend their land and people. The film is important because it commemorates the bravery and fighting spirits of Libyans and also documents the atrocities that Italy had enacted under the fascist rule of Mussolini. It's a deeply moving history lesson that we should not forget.

To hobnob53: I don't know if the executed soldier is based on a real person, but it wouldn't surprise me if such cases occurred under Mussolini's reign.

I haven't seen it since the early 80s, but I still remember this film as being well made, and one of my favourite movies on the subject of assymetric desert warfare (Lawrence of Arabia, The Wind and the Lion, The Beast, being some others). I am glad that I did not know that it was financed by Khadafi because it probably would have tainted my opinion (like, it's hard to appreciate Leni Riefenstahl without thinking of the context), but credit where credit is due.



"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster"

Yes, it was a great movie.