![]() Still even laboring under that handicap, when it opened in 1976 there were still protests. We never hear Mohammed, we see him on two occasions in long-shot and he's not recognizable. Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara and the rest of the players talk to the camera as if Mohammed was like Philip Marlowe in Lady of the Lake, that famous noir film shot in the first person. What we have in The Message is a cast playing to a vacuum. It was by arms as well as faith that Islam triumphed in the Arabian peninsula and was spreading elsewhere when the Prophet died in 632. He was not only a great religious teacher, but apparently quite the military strategist. He would have to have been to have accomplished what he did. The Message is about the early days of Islam, but as a film it labors under the insurmountable handicap of us not seeing the messenger.īy all accounts the messenger was one charismatic fellow. Reviewed by bkoganbing 5 / 10 Labors Under A Handicap Of No MessengerĪpparently when Mohammed founded Islam he never factored in the great use that motion pictures could be made for spreading the faith. Akkad got killed in a terrorist attack in Jordan in 2005. Also starring Irene Papas, Michael Ansara (Barbara Eden's former husband), Johnny Sekka and Michael Forest.Īkkad (who was best known as the producer of the "Halloween" franchise) later cast Quinn and Papas in "Lion of the Desert", about Libyan national hero Omar Mukhtar, who fought against the Italian occupation. One can argue that there was nothing bad about having multiple gods as Mecca did before Mohammed founded Islam, but Mohammed and his followers certainly believed in what they were doing, and the movie makes a very good point of that. And so, he founded a religion that is now the faith of about one fifth of the world population. Without a doubt, Mohammed (just like Jesus) was basically a revolutionary, showing how the people in control of Mecca were oppressing the majority of the population. Most of the movie is very energizing, despite a few slow scenes. So, the movie focuses mainly on Mohammed's uncle Hamza ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib (Anthony Quinn). In compliance with Islamic tradition, Mohammed himself is not depicted, since the religion forbids depictions of him. Moustapha Akkad's movie "The Message" (alternately called "Mohammad, Messenger of God") tells the story of the founding of Islam. Reviewed by lee_eisenberg 8 / 10 Islam starts
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