Slasher-flick innovator Moustapha Akkad had bad timing. The creator of the Halloween series and the Prophet’s bioepic The Messenger, the Syrian-American dreamed big in Hollywood of grandiose cinema fundamentally changing the relationship between the United States and the Arab and Islamic worlds. But his anti-fascist rebellion-epic hit the silver screen in 1981, the year Ronald Reagan became President after dealing behind then-President Jimmy Carter’s back to secure the release of Iran’s American hostages, it flopped. Anthony Quinn couldn’t out-act [...]

Categories: Africa, Africa North, Book Reviews • Tags: Anthony Quinn, fascism, film, Gaddafi, Libya, Mustafa Akkad