MovieChat Forums > The Wind and the Lion (1975) Discussion > The Real Raisuli

The Real Raisuli

posted 15 years ago by Hancock_the_Superb
6 replies | jump to latest

I've been reading David S. Woolman's Rebels in the Rif: Abd el-Krim and the Rif Rebellion, which provides a great amount of detail on the Raisuli and his exploits. Besides the Perdicaris Incident, he was a life-long outlaw and a major political power-player in Morocco, who led a protracted guerilla war against the Spanish from 1913 through the early '20s. Eventually he sided with the Spanish and ran afoul of Abd el-Krim, which was ultimately his downfall.

The famous picture of a fat and bearded Raisuli, oft-circulated on the Internet, was apparently taken in his last years, when he was suffering from dropsy. He was supposedly a very handsome man in his youth, so Connery's casting isn't too far off - well, aside from the ethnic aspect.

I incorporated much of these readings into Raisuli's Wikipedia article which you're free to check out.

"Earth first! Make Mars our bitch!"

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 14 years ago

It took some rather exhaustive searches, but I also managed to track down Rosita Forbes's full-length biography of Raisuli, The Sultan of the Mountains. Hopefully it will get here soon.

"I don't want to blow your handsome head to pieces."

[–] ladyofargonne 14 years ago

Fascinating story. Surprised it hasn't been done more.

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 14 years ago

The Forbes bio is largely a first-person "as told to" kind of book. So in effect you're getting Raisuli's own account of his life. That's pretty cool.

Forbes/Raisuli pretty much gloss over the Perdicaris Incident. But she does go into a lot of depth about the Raisuli's war with Spain in the 1910's. I'm not too far into that section yet but it takes about at least half the book on its own.

I will note that much of the film's dialogue is taken almost verbatim from Forbes's book - Raisuli's speech about fighting Abdel Malek, for instance, is almost word-for-word from Forbes. You can tell Milius did his homework on the subject.

"I will treat these paltry interruptions with the attention they deserve."

[–] vpilutis 14 years ago

Back to Sean my wife was watching "Not Without My Daughter"
Which has stock footage of that kook Ayatollah Khomeini he does look like Sean
See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] mandrake62 13 years ago

Yes indeed, the first time I saw a photo of Khomeini I was immediately struck by the similarity between him and Connery in Wind and the Lion.