Mahoma, el mensajero de Dios

I was assigned to view this movie for class. From what I have learned thus far, this movie is the best representation of the truth about Islam. With all that is going on in the world today and many people's misconceptions about Islam this is a must see for all.

Not only is it an educational masterpiece... The Message has a brilliant musical score, beautiful cinematography, a wonderful script, and terrific acting. If your video stores do not carry it, order it from Amazon.com and learn the truth about the origins of the worlds fastest growing religion and what it stands for.

This film is about how Islam began from the beginning until its establishment. Anthony Quinn stars as the uncle of Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h) Hamza who is the leader of an army of a few loyal men against an army of thousands. The film is not about offence but about defence and ends with peaceful armed less walk into the city of Mecca after many years of suffering.

This film explains how the Prophet Mohammed start his message with a few men and eventually gaining thousands and as you can see today millions. The film talks about the establishment the spread of Gods message and the story of the men who had to give away there lives for the sake of Gods words including the sacrifices that are made is the death of Hamza (Anthony Quinn).

I saw this film when I was working and living in Brussels in 1979. Most of my friends were North African, ergo Muslim. When this film came out, we all went to the Bourse Cinema. The film itself was very enlightening, and the fact that Mohammed himself was never 'in the picture' (so to speak) I found contributing to the profoundness of the film. What really struck me was that when in the film religious (holy) verses (like psalms) were sung or played, the whole audience would reverently sing along. Very moving.

Of course, it was 25 years ago, and I cannot remember a lot of it, but it was my first encounter with Islam and made a major impact.

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.

Anthony Quinn is no doubt one of the greatest actors of the 20th century...The strange thing is that he fits to the muslim roles with such a perfection that, with his contribution "The Message" and "The Lion of the Dessert" both have been masterpieces which are still watched by many people. Though the theme of this movie is the birth of Islam, I think it should have a variety of audience from many religions and cultures. I think the things that are emphasized, the struggle for the cause you believe, the sacrifices you have made for the beloved, are all universal values that have been emphasized with a rather outstanding casting and directing...I think everyone should watch this movie no matter what his/her religion, thought, culture is... Thanks Moustapha Akkad, Thanks Anthony Quinn, Thanks Irene Papas....You have made an excellent movie.....