Baraka à Beyrouth

It looks as if this cinematic essay in crime n' politics is quite rare. It is equipped with a cast that includes Max von Sydow, Ray Milland and Broderick Crawford and has a story with potential: A Russian working in the Ministry of Defense wants political asylum after his son is taken to the Gulag. He enters the US embassy in Beirut, only to be perpetrated by brute force killer Chuck Connors. Doesn't sound so bad, really; but it all is done in the manner of a TV movie. There are moments of thrill, but then again, no less moments of cheesy dialogue and bad cinematography. Among the actors, Connors stands out as sort of the personification of evil, but the script doesn't allow him to display all traits of his character. In essence, this film – if you can find it, since it has quite a few alternative titles – is fun to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but doesn't fit for repeated viewing.

When I found out last year that this was only Richard Roundtree's second starring feature after his phenomenal turn in the title role of the original Shaft, I struggled to look for it online until recently when I saw on this site that it was on Prime Video. That Amazon site was also connected to my TV so I finally got to see that there. Roundtree stars with veterans like Ray Milland, Broderick Crawford, Max von Sydow, and Chuck Connors. To tell the truth, despite some of those players, I was partially bored for the first 45 minutes until the arrival of Connors by that point. What he does during that initial intro made the movie real exciting! Oh, and I also liked the song that Carl Douglas sang during the opening titles as well as during some of the exciting scenes and the end credits. This was only a couple of years before his big hit song "Kung Fu Fighting" came out and hit # 1 on the Billboard charts. So on that note, I say give Embassy a chance.

A pleasant enough diversion which somehow should have produced more wallop, considering all the name people in the cast. I was in that cast playing the part of Rylands, as Karl Held. I was greeted at the airport with the news that my role had been increased in size and importance. I wrongly assumed that they would boost my billing accordingly. They did not. My mistake. Had a great time working with the many well established names, and hanging out in Beirut and Syria. Top notch cinematographer, Raoul Coutard was on the job. He was a big help to all of us Background noise on the sound track necessitated looping entire performances in a London sound studio. Performances suffered in the process, perhaps not all that much, but they were negatively affected; although mine received a nice mention in the London Times. "Laid back and intelligent performance" in another review. Also, a tough row to hoe for many of us in the cast, was getting "the bug" despite our precautions of shunning the water and local cooking...the show must go on. In the end, though, all that counts is what's on the screen. Yes, it should have been better, but,in my opinion,it was hardly a disaster.

This movie has some very special moments. While I'm not an expert on directing, the movie was poorly directed in my view. The pacing was slow, there were continuity errors. I watched it a long time ago and about to rewatch it again after many years. I hope I don't regret my review to the good or the bad. But I suspect that I might like less because my experience in judging movies is more mature and sophisticated. My first viewing was in "my salad days, when I was green in judgment." (Shakespeare-Antony & Cleopatra Act 1 Scene V). Now I have been round the block a few times and the ravages of time and battle are evident on my armor. In short, I am more forgiving and always looking to give a person a break of some kind. My motto: Swift in judgement, swift to die.