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Rating:  -
Anthony Quinn is absolutely fantastic in this film. Along with Lion of the Desert, Lawrence of Arabia, and Zorba the Greek, Quinn makes one believe he is who he portrays.
Rating:  -
The first time I have seen the message was 27 years ago. It is the greatest piece of art I have even encountered. Such a strong message for humanity. It tells people how Islam started and spread by words.
Rating:  -
A few years before producing the slasher movie Halloween, Moustapha Akkad undertook the challenge to make a movie about Muhammad, the founder/prophet of Islam. Since the religion forbids depictions of its prophet, Muhammad is never shown on screen, nor is his voice heard. The main characters here are Muhammad's adopted son Zaid (Damien Thomas), his uncle Hamza (Anthony Quinn) and a slave named Bilal (Johnny Sekka). Convinced by Muhammad's teachings, they try to revolt against the ruling merchants of Mecca. These merchants don't like the idea of monotheism because it would hurt the economy and they also don't like the idea of slaves and women being equal to men. So Muhammad and his followers are exiled, but the battle is not yet over...
Much of the time, the movie works surprisingly well despite Muhammad's absence, but at times it's rather awkward, even silly. Occasionally, the camera takes his place, having people talk to the camera, apparently getting replies that we, the audience, can't hear. Muhammad does no preaching, instead one of his followes will have to tell the crowd, and the viewers, "The prophet has said...". This fails to give the impression of Muhammad as a strong leader, because he doesn't really do anything at all. We also don't get to know him, nor do we get to see his revelations, the way we got to see Moses get the stone tablets on Mount Sinai in The Ten Commandments. The movie may be less offensive to muslims this way, but it's also less effective and convincing for the rest of us. It's also quite difficult for the non-believing viewer to really identify with the religious motivations of the characters.
According to an opening note before the film, it's historicity has been approved by certain Islamic leaders and scholars. Whether it's been approved by other - more neutral - historians, I don't know; the movie ignores the more controversial aspects of Muhammad's life and teachings.
In conclusion, though, while "The Message" clearly is a pro-Muslim film that gives us only the good side of the religion, suffers somewhat from lack of a protagonist and is a bit longer than it needed to be, it's still an interesting movie and a good introduction to the early history of Islam, as portrayed by its followers. Recommended to those interested in religion, religious and/or epic movies. 3-3½ stars/5.
Rating: -
The message was a vey interesting movie about the prophets life and for people that cuariuos about islam i recemend you seeing this movie.
Rating: -
The Message (30th Anniversary Edition)
Review here is of the 2005 DVD product, "30th Anniversary Edition." Having seen only the English-language version on videocassette, I was glad to find a newer release with both English and Arabic films, and hoped for some new bonus features.
Alas, after all these years, what we have here is essentially a re-release onto disc of the contents of the old videocassette. The making-of feature is the same one that was included with previous videocassettes. No subtitles of any kind are provided. However, the same analog-access English closed captions from the VHS release are available on the English film. No subtitles or closed captioning on the Arabic version. What a shame that this alternate edition of The Message remains inaccessible to non-Arabic speakers, despite them making the effort to provide the film on disc two.
Hopefully we will see a true special edition release of The Message in the future.
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