Word: raisuli
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We’re certainly a long way from the time when Theodore Roosevelt delivered his blustering ultimatum “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead” after a Greek-American was taken captive by a Moroccan outlaw in Tangier. Of course, Foggy Bottom needn’t necessarily use such provocative language with Beijing. But State must make it clear that enforcing American rights is the highest priority of the U.S. government: a matter of national security even...
What should the U.S. do? There is an instinctive longing for the bravado of 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt was faced with the kidnaping of an American, Ion Perdicaris, by a Moroccan bandit named Ahmed Raisuli. Legend has it that Roosevelt pronounced a famous ultimatum: "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." (It is less well remembered that Perdicaris was freed only after the Moroccan government paid ransom.) But a poll conducted last Thursday for TIME/ CNN by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman indicates substantial public recognition that a big stick may not be the answer to an explosive and delicate situation. Among those...
...Raisuli, Sherif of the Berbers ("The blood of the prophets flows in me") kidnaps a beautiful American woman, Eden Pedecaris ("He is a brigand and a lout") and sweeps her off to his castle in the desert. President Theodore Roosevelt is outraged ("Arabian thief! I want respect!"), and the U.S. Government dispatches an ultimatum to the powers in Morocco: "Mrs. Pedecaris alive, or Raisuli dead." There follow fights, betrayals, skirmishes, duels, U.S. Marine action and a couple of full-fledged battles. Nothing much like it ever happened in history, but it makes for a lovely adventure...
Sean Connery, who has become a superb film actor, makes a dashing, funny Raisuli. Brian Keith conjures up a definitive T.R., strong and canny, with an edge of sadness and a real, rough dignity. One of the major surprises is Candice Bergen as Mrs. Pedecaris. Never the most comfortable of actresses, Bergen quickly falls in with the movie's congenial braggadocio and gives a performance that is wry and clever. She may not be quite the sort of woman for whom, as the ads say, "half the world may go to war," but she is good for at least...
...Secret Agent James Bond, Actor Sean Cannery came to epitomize the icy-cool professional. Now retired from Bondian intrigue, Connery has found his latest role as Raisuli, "the last of the Barbary pirates," a hotter venture. Filmed in the arid deserts of Almeria, Spain, The Wind and the Lion co-stars Candice Bergen as Connery's American kidnap victim, and Brian Keith as President Theodore Roosevelt, whom Connery tries to blackmail. Based loosely on an actual historical incident, the movie required Connery to be costumed in Arab headgear so hot that it kept the actor within wandering distance...