Lion of the Desert is a canny film, though it's probably a film from which one will take just what one took into it. No expense has been spared.

This is a serious movie, done not greatly but seriously and well. It helps you read between the headlines.

Visually it is awesome, due in no small part to Jack Hildyard's cinematography, but a desert spectacular is by nature limited. Lion of the Desert grows tedious long before its 2 3/4-hour running time has run its course.

It's one of the best anti-colonial Hollywood film ever (almost on a par with the Battle of Algiers).