The Making of Lion of the Desert Page #5

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cheese, could they?

Never.

Prepare the artillery to open fire.

Blast them!

Now, send in the army.

Now, he has made his move.

Let's go.

Look, over there.

Ambush!

Now.

He is good.

He is good.

This old man is good.

My dear General

My dear dear General.

I hope you don't mind that

I share some of your credit

but after all, I chose you.

- I hope, Duce, that I can...

- You can have anything you want.

You're the most fortunate

man in this room.

I have physically moved the war

from the desert into the mountains.

The last remnant of the enemy

has now run into holes,

we find ourselves into a

position whereby we are

are forced to pull them out

by their necks one by one.

Duce, I didn't know..

I know.

You are having difficulties.

You're having problems with

them being in the mountains.

I don't seem to have an enemy to

fight, yet they attack and assasinate.

I mean, they have no form,...

...if they have form,

I could beat them with form.

But they have no continuity of

movement, no fixed point of position.

I haven't however have

to come to my Duce to remind him.

I have a radical solution.

A New Hadrian's Wall.

Except..

that Hadrian used his walls to

shut the Barbarians Out.

Which is mine is to shut them in.

I propose, my Duce,

the fence in Libya.

To run a war in an impossible

wire across the desert,

from the Mediterranean to the

shores of this sea of moving sand.

It will cut the enemies

off from his supplies out

of Egypt and cut him off

from his retreat into Egypt.

Duce, my Duce!

Hundreds of miles of barbed wire?

But is it possible

to know the cost?

Why do you question

Hadrian's Wall?

Remember, it was

Hadrian's Wall that kept

the Romans in Britain

100 years longer.

Thousands of tons of equipment...

4000 men...

Six months in the whole job

completing the last part.

You're awful.

You don't even look it

your own vision...

of XXXXX himself

XXXXX primal, do you?

There's going up to

a big casa (house).

They were trying to get through

with wire cutters...

and 5000 rounds of ammunition.

Well...

That is that.

Now all he is the trickle

from the concentration camps.

And we'll dry that up, gentlemen.

We will dry it up.

(Duce on radio:
) In ten years time

all Europe will be fascist.

I'm XXXXXXXXXXXX???

XXXXX??? in the air, in Roman tanks,

in Roman ships, in Roman planes.

The new men of fascism are

writing the pages of tomorrow.

We have conquered a second

Roman empire with our blood.

We will fertilise it with our labor.

We will hold it forever...

with out arms, our XXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX!

- How many bullets have you?

- Twelve.

At this rate, we will be soon down

to fighting them with stones.

How long can we last?

Till doomsday.

Nothing has got through for a month.

We are fighting barbed wire.

The wire will win when

it tears our spirit.

Only then.

Yes, yes, the wire

is hurting us.

It is... It is around our neck.

But it is God, not Graziani and not him

who decides what becomes of us.

What is the will of wire

compared to the will of God?

They have 8 million bayonets,

we have one that matters.

And we are not alone.

We have many, many friends.

And others are

fighting beside us.

Duce on Radio:

"We will overrun the earth."

"And then we will

take the flag of fascism..."

"to the throne."

Thank you.

It's not the cold.

It's the dust.

You've been fighting a war...

for 22 years.

It's the same dust.

Why don't you sleep?

I've been better sitting up.

We must sleep

XXXXXX?????

Go! Go!

We will hold them off!

It's suicide sir.

They tied their legs

so they cannot run.

No!

No!

Don't beg boy.

Don't beg!

You're taken in arms.

You...

Shoot him!

There are more in there.

Follow them up.

Go on.

You took him. Shoot him.

You idiot.

I said... shoot him.

Where is he?

Well?

Yes.

I confirm the identification.

He's Omar Mukhtar.

I'm distressed

to see him like this.

How can you say that?

He has lead the rebellion

against us for 20 years.

As a gallant enemy,

Omar Mukhtar should be

treated by us with dignity

and with respect.

With respect?

He should have been

whipped all the way here.

You forget yourself sir.

Sir?

Is there anything I can do for you?

If you will allow me a little water,

I could make myself ready for prayers.

Of course.

And... the chains while I pray?

Out of the question!

He only wants to pray.

I am too old to climb walls or...

to fight bare-handed.

Remove his chains for an hour.

On your own personal

responsibility, sir?

Yes.

Bring the water.

Thank You.

No.

No need.

Omar Mukhtar...

I have come a long way to meet you.

Now, you must wait.

I want to ask you one question.

Why did you keep going this alone?

I am sure you didn't hope to drive us

out of Lybia with so little, did you?

We fought you.

That was enough.

But you care nothing about

the ruination of your country?

You are the ruination of my country.

What would you do if

someone occupied your land?

Did you ever think how

your attacks seemed to us...

Ambush, murder by night,

deception by day,...

...threats against the farmers.

- Farming our land.

Libya is not your country,

you have no right in it.

Not to the pasture of one cow,

not one minute the right.

Italy has as much right in here

as anybody else.

England has a right to Egypt

France to Tunisia, Algeria.

Spain to Morocco.

But none of them

have our pedigree.

We have hundreds

of years of right here.

So, you will take

everything from me...

and you want me to

justify your tax?

No nation has the right

to occupy another.

We are back here, that's all.

No one can deny us.

Read the date on this coin.

It's a coin of the Cesars,

dated, minted in Libya.

You will also find Greek,

Turkish, Venecian coins.

All over Libya

you will find them,...

...buried in our sand.

Yes, I had forgotten.

You are short sighted,

aren't you?

Your spectacles, I believe.

The day they brought them

to me, I knew...

...you wouldn't be

too far behind.

My spectacles... we're

both your prisoners.

I will not be trivial.

Take them back. Here...

Yes, it does have

an interesting past

but don't try to buy

too much with it today.

The money, like your

glory, is not permanent.

But I respect your past

and you must respect ours.

We too have a history and science,

mathematics and medicine.

In your dark ages,

we lead the world to learn.

How many days will it take you

to arrange the surrender of your men?

We will never surrender.

We win or we die.

And don't think it stops there.

We will have the next

generation to fight,

and after the

next, the next.

As for me, I will live longer

than my hang-man.

What makes you think I'm

going to hang you?

I mean it might suit my papers

better to pension you.

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