Main Cast: Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Beverly Johnson, Kabir Bedi, Omar Sharif, Rex Harrison
Release Year: 1979
Country: US/CH
Run Time: 117 minutes
Plot
Released simply as Ashanti, this search-and-rescue film was adapted by scenarist Stephen Geller (Slaughterhouse-Five) from Evano, a novel by Alberto Vasques-Figueroa. Odious middle-eastern slave trader Peter Ustinov sets the plot in motion by kidnapping Beverly Johnson, the wife of World Health Organization doctor Michael Caine. As Johnson is subjected to the basest of humiliations, Caine joins forces with soldier-of-fortune Rex Harrison, pilot William Holden and nomad Kabir Bedi to rescue his wife. Shiek Omar Sharif purchases Johnson, clearing the decks for an all-stops-out action finale. Aldo Tonti lensed the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
William Holden - Jim Sandell; Zia Mohyeddin - Djamel; Winston Ntshona - Ansok; Tariq Yunus - Faid; Tyrone Jackson - Dongaro; Jean-Luc Bideau - Marcel; Johnny Sekka - Capt. Bradford
Credit
Kuli Sander - Art Director, Richard Fleischer - Director, Michael Melvoin - Composer (Music Score), Aurelio Crugnola - Production Designer, Aldo Tonti - Cinematographer, Georges Alain Vuille - Producer, David Hildyard - Sound/Sound Designer, Stephen Geller - Screenwriter, Alberto Vasquez Figueroa - Book Author
Ashanti (aka Ashanti, Land of No Mercy) is a 1979adventure film, produced by Georges-Alain Vuille, and directed by Richard Fleischer. Despite its impressive cast and setting (on location in the Sahara, and in Kenya, Israel, and Sicily), it was widely panned by critics upon release. Michael Caine was reportedly very disappointed with the project and claims it was the second worst film along with his previous film The Swarm (despite appearing in other failures in 1980s), after director Fleischer and co-star Beverly Johnson, were both removed from filming two-thirds of the way through the shoot.[1] Fleischer departed after being hospitalised with sunstroke.
This is one of William Holden's final films. Both Fleischer and cinematographer Tonti had previously worked together on Barabbas (1961).
Ashanti is an action adventure film, set against the background of modern day slave trading, with a man who determinedly takes on a perilous journey in order to find his beautiful wife, who has been kidnapped by brutal slave traders. David and Anansa Linderby (Caine and Johnson respectively) are doctors with the World Health Organization. On a medical mission carrying out an inoculation programme, they visit a West African village. While David takes photographs of tribal dancers, Anansa goes swimming alone. She is attacked and abducted by slave traders led by Suleiman (Peter Ustinov), who mistake her for an Ashanti tribeswoman. The police can do nothing to find her and David has almost given up hope when he hears rumours that Anansa has been kidnapped by Sulieman to be sold to Arab Prince Hassan (Omar Sharif). The African authorities deny that the slave trade even exists so David must find help in a shadowy world where the rescuers of slaves are just as ruthless as the traders themselves. As David tracks her across Africa and the Sahara desert, he is helped by a member of the Anti-Slavery League (Rex Harrison), a mercenary helicopter pilot (William Holden), and Malik (Kabir Bedi) a tribesman who is seeking revenge on Suleiman.
