Ashanti (1979)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

How sad is this?

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

At a first glance there is nothing wrong with anything in this picture, the story is excellent and of vital interest, the actors are on the whole prominent, no one does anything wrong, the music is also quite OK, and the scenery is magnificent, – but what then is missing? Michael Caine in the lead has called it the worst film he ever made, but there is nothing wrong with his acting, even though you can trace a slight lack of interest and passion, which is what he professes as the husband of the violated bride. Peter Ustinov makes the most of his character the villain, an abominable slave trader counting every human life as worthless unless he can sell it for money and even succeeds in making this monster of a human trafficker look ridiculous - it's actually a caricature. William Holden has the briefest but also the most interesting part, a role typical for him, in which he shines and develops a profound interest only to become the first and most regrettable casualty, like a typical Holden hero. Rex Harrison is as sly as always and also makes the best of his diplomatic business in doing what he can to temper and prepare Michael Caine for his quest, while the most fascinating figure is Kabir Bedi as Malik, a copy of Omar Sharif's Ali in "Lawrence of Arabia", who has another tragic and heroic story to tell – and ends as regretfully as William Holden. Omar Sharif is credible enough as Prince Hassan, and his eloquence and gentlemanly demeanor almost makes you hope for some humanity in him, but he absconds as soon as he sees that his game is up. The actor left for us to dissect is Beverly Johnson as the leading lady, and here is the evident flaw. She is good in the beginning as the doctor and wife and even better as Peter Ustinov's bullied slave, but when it comes to the final critical point she loses everything, and suddenly you understand Michael Caine's lack of interest in her, although they married for love. which he insists on but which no one can believe, least of all William Holden. I am sorry, but she is not a good actress. If she had acted up to the part written for her, inspired Michael Caine to the passion needed to chase her all over Africa, and if she had been just anything more than only a cliché Ashanti beauty, the film would have been a success. One suspects that the director Franklin Schaffner, who has made a number of outstanding films, rather soon during the shooting noticed she was not enough for her part and lost interest himself, to finish the film just to fulfill the contract. Pity, because it's a great story.

If Ashanti had been a serious attempt at a film about the institution of slavery, still prevalent in third world countries the film might have been better received. Instead it turns into a star studded disaster of a movie where the stars came in, said their lines, and picked up their paychecks without much conviction.Michael Caine and his wife Beverly Johnson work for the United Nations World Health Organization and are busy doing their humanitarian thing in East Africa. Along comes Peter Ustinov who can barely summon enough ham in him to make a go of the part as a Moslem slave dealer. As Johnson is black he grabs her anyway along with a lot of children and a few adults as well.Of course Caine doesn't take kindly to the kidnapping and the rest of the film is spent in a rescue attempt. The rest of the cast has such folks as William Holden, Rex Harrison, Omar Sharif and Indian film star Kebir Bedi in parts and looking so incredibly bored with the whole thing.Usually in something like this talented people like those mentioned above will just overact outrageously and feast on a diet of scenery. But Ashanti doesn't even have that going for it.What an incredible waste of time. The aroma of tax write off is permeating the air.

I saw this recently with my wife and discovered it's better than Caine believes, although it's not much cop. Britain's greatest ever screen actor does not seem too interested in this role, which is a pity as he might have elevated it with more conviction in his playing. Rex Harrison seems even less bothered, perhaps unsurprisingly, as his character is very poorly written. William Holden is better, but his screen time is fleeting and, again, his character is not well scripted.Beverly Johnson is as beautiful a woman as I have ever seen, but is given very little to do, the film might have gained a great deal by concentrating more on her story. Ustinov steals the show, but basically by playing a comic character quite out of keeping with the film's serious tone. The music is poor and Omar Sharif makes one of his many pointless cameos (his career has been based on this for decades now).Richard Fleischer has to be blamed for not directing this more effectively, he was an infuriatingly unpredictable film director, and this is one of his weaker movies.

An obscure film, but so what? IF you do find it give it a lookThe worst element may be lousy music score really knocks this down several stars. But at least there isn't a lot of music.Does Caine really think this is worse than BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, BLAME IT ON RIO, JAWS 4, THE SWARM, or even the recent THE WEATHERMAN? He was probably really hot on location and that's all he remembers. Good to great actor though he is, this isn't really in his worst 10, not in his best 10 either but...it's well worth watching.He does seem to have chemistry with the wife character and there is a memorable scene with him and a bunch of slaves who don't want him to leave them. Also an early scene involving his wife's abduction is very well done--so the story gets off to a good start.Director Fleischer was friends with Rex Harrison, who is just fine in the film, and Holden is okay too. This film always remains interesting even it may not catch fire--it actually drags in the middle but has a pretty lively wrap up--but everyone treats it with seriousness. A noble cause sort of thing.It may well be the last really serious role Ustinov had certainly one of his few villain performances. Shariff is also good and helps juice up the ending.The photography is beautiful and the locations are very well used, too bad it sort of stumbles around about a third of the way in. It has a good sense of place in the details throughout.Aside from a blandly shot helicopter crash the action, what there is of it, is well done. I believe Fleischer took this over from another director and probably deserves credit for what's good about the film more than what's weak.Worth a look, though the ancient full frame VHS doesn't do it justice in 2014 a good looking DVD finally became available.