The Message (1976)

Director:

Moustapha Akkad

Writers:

H.A.L. Craig (writer)
Tewfik El-Hakim (writer)

Release Date:

14 July 1977 (West Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

In four decades only four... "The Robe" "The Ten Commandments" "Ben-Hur" and now... For the first time...the vast, spectacular drama that changed the world!

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Empire | Byzantine | Emperor | Byzantium | 7th Century

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Anthony Quinn	...	Hamza
Irene Papas	...	Hind
Michael Ansara	...	Abu Sofyan
Johnny Sekka	...	Bilal
Michael Forest	...	Khalid
Damien Thomas	...	Zaid
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ahmed Abdelhalim	...	Uriqat
Habib Ageli	...	Hudayfa
Mohammad Al-Gaddary	...	Money Lender
Nicolas Amer	...	Suheil
Bruno Barnabe	...	Umaya
Mohamed Basri	...	Merchant
John Bennett	...	Salool
Martin Benson	...	Abu-Jahal
Robert Brown	...	Otba
Donald Burton	...	Amr
Earl Cameron	...	Annajashi
George Camiller	...	Waleed
Ronald Chenery	...	Mosaab
Rosalie Crutchley	...	Somaya
Salem Gedara	...	Wahshi
Michael Godfrey	...	Barra
Garrick Hagon	...	Ammar
Gerard Hely	...	Sinan
John Humphry	...	Ubada
Elaine Ives-Cameron	...	Arwa
Neville Jason	...	Jaafar
Richard Johnson	...	Narrator
Hassan Joundi	...	Kisra
Ronald Leigh-Hunt	...	Heraclius
Peter Madden	...	Toothless Man
André Morell	...	Abu-Talib
Wolfe Morris	...	Bu-Lahab
Ewen Solon	...	Yasser
Leonard Trolley	...	Silk Merchant

Also Known As:

Mohammed, Messenger of God

Runtime:

177 min

Country:

UK | Pakistan | Lebanon | Morocco | Kuwait | Libya

Language:

English | Arabic

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Germany) | Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:Atp | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Libya

Company:

Filmco International Productions Inc.

Trivia:

Production stopped when the financeers withdrew their support, leaving cast and crew stranded for two weeks in Morocco (in a hotel with broken air conditioning; they slept under wet towels). Financing was eventually supplied by none other than Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Quotes:

Bilal: There is no compulsion in religion. A man may take many years, or only need minutes. It is God who decides the time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of an Epic: Mohammad Messenger of God (1976) (TV)

great film, visuals and acting

This is a great film. I'm a history major who took several courses in the history of the Middle East and Islam, so nothing is going to be good or accurate or trivia filled enough for me, but it certainly didn't contradict anything I'd learned (for cinematic purposes or otherwise), and that's more than I can say for any historical epic I've seen in several years.

This film starts with Muhammed receiving the Koran from the angel Gabriel and ends at his death. It was filmed in accordance with Islamic political correctness, so The Prophet himself is never depicted, visually or vocally. While this is well affected, it unfortunately removes him from a lot of the story. I would like to have known a lot more about his life from the film, not his mannerisms or speech as depicted by a particular actor, but at least the major events of his life, his children, his wives, and so on.

Having said that, however, the film is still a very good depiction of the birth of Islam. The plot focuses on the historical events rather than the Koran itself, which contains almost no history from its own period, and is therefore different from a lot of Biblical epics which present the historical events IN the Bible. It's accurate in that it tries to present the birth of Islam as most people today probably learn it. Definitely not a propaganda piece, but it's not a movie filled with facts, truth or fiction, more a movie of character and tone. It's more similar to Braveheart than it is to Ben Hur or the Gospel of John. The movie presents a decent snapshot of the times and the attitudes and lifestyles under which Islam developed.

The acting is fantastic, the music is good (won an academy award), and the cinematography, filmed in Morocco and Libya, is beautiful. Costumes are cool, and there's a few scenes with a set of ancient bagpipes for you Celtic history buffs.