A lot of Americans don't understand non Hollywood style films.

First of all, there is a whole world out there that does not make films in the Hollywood mould. The European, Indian, Japanese and Chinese film industries produce films with a very different pacing and style to Hollywood's, as does European TV. Stories are not wrapped up to a happy ending where the bad guy gets what is coming to him and the good guy gets the girl. They very often finish ambiguously, or with a sad ending. Above all, they allow and expect the audience to THINK! This film has a different tone and style. The action scenes were good, the scenery spectacular, and the story which might have been rather simplistic for our jaded taste, would be well received by the rest of the world.

As the Arabs suffer from appalling stereotyping in the US media, where they are generally portrayed as backward thinking terrorists, just as African Americans were once portrayed as comical, servile, none too bright and always supporting the white leading character, it is commendable that someone is trying to show that the Arabs are people with an ancient culture and beliefs.

Neither of the adversaries at the beginning were 'bad' they just had different views on what was best for their people. One was more pragmatic, if a little greedy, seeing what the oil money could do for his people, and the other traditional and possibly more far-sighted. What will happen to my people when the oil runs out? Both were right in their own way but tragically could not come to an agreement. This story was an allegory for the tragic of the middle east which we are still living with today. If you read of the WWI desert war in which T.E. Lawrence took part, the Arabs were very tribal, but had yet to become divided by the great powers who wanted the oil, and who would shamefully betray them at the Versailles conference in 1919 when boundaries were drawn through tribal lands to suit the western powers and promised made to the tribes were broken. Some tribes were given oil rich territories; whereas, others missed out entirely. The bookish son who transformed into a natural leader in battle was using his head and the knowledge he had gained from all those books, rather than bravely charging into the line of fire to be killed instantly. That again was an allegory to show that learning and thinking can be as important as bravery and muscle.

Some posters have called the acting amateurish. I disagree. The acting style is just different. Take a look at some of the old Hollywood films shown regularly on the retro channels if you want to see bad acting, even by excellent former stage actors. It was the popular style of the times and played to what the audience expected. Acting styles come and go. Not everyone enjoys fistfights and brawling or modern smart-mouthed sassy women. Some of the much vaunted 'method' actors of the 50's are embarrassing to watch these days. Other posters have complained about the different accents - that did not bother me at all, in fact, I hardly noticed it. Most of the actors were French or English. Antonio Banderas is Spanish. I would have found American accent FAR more grating. Yeah right!

Overall, I found this a very enjoyable and rare spectacular epic film which we should have had the opportunity to see on the big screen. I have noticed that many, many, good films are only getting a limited theatrical release and certainly not in my area, whereas trite 'popcorn' films appealing to teenagers fill the multiplexes.