The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro

An accurate portrayal of the events aboard the Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro. Karl Malden accurately portrays the helpless victim of terrorist thugs. Most accurate of all is the brutality of the terrorists killing an unarmed man in a wheel chair and then throwing him overboard as witnessed by one of the ships porters. Leon Klinghoffer's defiance is conveyed very well by Karl Malden and seems to accurately reflect the actual events. Lee Grant is wonderful as the victims wife agonizing over the whereabouts of her husband. Her walking in front of the captured terrorists at the end probably is an accurate portrayal of the real Marilyn Klinghoffer's response to her loss.

A very impressive cast assembled for this movie. I think that "The Hijacking Of the Achille Lauro" movie sticks very closely to the reality of the true events that occurred. It is very well acted and edited nicely. There are some very impressive fresh talent in this movie. Would like to know more about them. That is the actors playing the hijackers. The movie tells both sides and shows the tragic killing of the old man. The oppressed and the oppressors- the outcome of such actions that people find themselves living under. I rate this movie 10 for the effort and professionalism that it clearly shows. The director has an impressive record -worked with Henry Fonda as well as of course other film legends Karl Malden.

The obvious film they were imitating with this is The Poseidon Adventure. There are long getting to know them scenes with some of the characters.

I do mean long. It's 40 minutes before the hijacking happens. Once it does, the film is quite heavy handed and one sided.

The villains are over the top caricatures. Not a single one of them are actually played by Arabs but by German (really?) actors. Speaking in broken English, ranting, sweaty, messy long hair and beards. Physically they don't even look Arab but like white bodybuilders. And act about as well as you'd expect.

In real life, the terrorists' brutal actions were enough to make them evil. This was so over the top and unnecessary. What should have been an accurate film done to respect the memory of the victims is marred by this.

Ironically the best part of the film was depicting the actions done to attempt to rescue the passengers. This was Reagan Era when it was made, and any attempt to explain an Arab, much less Palestinian, POV was unheard of.

Screen veterans Malden, Marshall, and Grant are quite good given what they have to work with. This is mostly of historical interest.