646f9e108c In 1805, the United States battles the pirates of Tripolithe Marines fight to raise the American flag The U. S. Marine Corps hymn starts with&quot;From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli&quot;, and this film&#39;s story purports to be the reason why, and is give or take a few incidents in this movie: It is 1805 and the Tripoli pirates have challenged America&#39;s right to freedom of the seas–-all of them, anywhere–-so United Stares warships were sent to that port to bottle up their fleet and set the riff-raff right concerning who could sail where. (History begins to suffer a bit along about this point.) A U. S. Marine unit, headed by Lieutenant O&#39;Bannon, was sent to attack them from the rear. He organized his unit around Hamet, Pasha of Tripoli, in exile after being overthrown by his brother. In Hamet&#39;s court was Sheila D&#39;Arneau, a diploma&#39;s daughter, who disguises herselfa dancing girl, and joins the group of eight U. S. Marines and Hamet supporters in their march across the Libyan desert. O&#39;Bannon and Shelia argue all the way to Tripoli. kenneth roberts deserves creditthe author of a book made into two separate movies: (a) Lydia Baily a serious movie which explores the racial conflict in the haitian rebellion when Afro-French (Haitians) claimed the rights of Frenchmen to Liberte Egalite et Fraternite and (b) regrettably Tripoli, america&#39;s war with certain peoples of a near eastern background, the radicals of their time belonging to a certain religious grouping.<br/><br/>the movie is nerdy in its presentation of american fighting men confronting the culture of the exotic near east. particularly the movie makes LT O&#39;Bannon into a sexually repressed nerd, unable to speak in the presence of beveiled women.<br/><br/>I gave this movie a six instead of the zero it deserves because the young american republic is so poorly represented in the cinema. I have to disagree with the other reviewers of this film, in that what they thought was a plus I found extremely negative. That of course I am talking about the incredibly annoying character Countess D&#39;Arneau played by Maureen O&#39;Hara. The character of the Countess D&#39;Arneau seems like it was written for a different movie, or every other action was written for a different movie. The movie therefore cannot choose which way it wants to go, sweet romantic comedy or macho manly movie about solders racing across the desert. Unfortunately it tries to do both and fails miserably. It is very possible to re-cut the film and take out every scene with Maureen O&#39;Hara. This would leave us with a dandy little historical war film (although short). Obviously this left me very disappointed because there are so few films about the time and subject and when one isgoodthis it gets ruined by Hollywoods need to put a leading lady into every film.<br/><br/>Bottom line… Unless you are willing to fast forward through the needless drivel avoid this one. If you are willing than the rest is a well acted and well staged piece of American history.
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