| | Harem |  | Director: William Hale (ii)
Actors: Nancy Travis, Art Malik, Sarah Miles, Yaphet Kotto, Julian Sands
Studio: Classicline
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 64375
Format: Import, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 187
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017633200115
ASIN: B00005RZRF
Theatrical Release Date: February 9, 1986
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| Customer Reviews:
 True Love On Film May 11, 2000
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This movie is all about love in it's purest form. Unconditional and true. The movie displays beautiful scenery of a land rarely seen or traveled by many. It holds great truth in the government at that time and beliefs of its people. Visually it is stimulating with costume and scenery. It is a beautiful movie, filled with romance and action. The story is very well written. And the length of the movie does not affect you. And ALL the actors play there character so well, you almost believe that you are there and feeling what they feel. It is a movie to lose yourself in. Send it to yourself, grab your favorite snack, place yourself somewhere cozy and light the candles. You are in for a real treat!
 The great waste of talent February 4, 2000
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
I dont understand the fact that in Harem, everyone fears the dreaded Sultan, who governs with an iron fist. Everyone that is, except Nancy. She is his concubine, a woman captured and presented to the sultan for his carnal amusement, and yet she speaks to him as if he were the subserviant one? She teases and taunts him that in order for her to sleep with him, she would"have to be married"! This is asinine given her position. She basically avoids his bed until he can wait no longer. "What I want...is to be alone with this woman" And then takes her in his arms, and tells her,"You really have no choice." He then looks down at her ample bosom, and proceeds to nuzzle it. Then as the last of Jessica's time slips away, a bomb explodes. He is called away, and Jessica escapes. Later on he finds her sleeping with her love interest in the movie and has her drown. She not only escapes, she actually subdues the sultan into surrender and some kind of a peace treaty! This was truly the Thelma and Louise of 1986. The two lead characters do not even share a kiss, even though their 2 seconds of a love scene do heat up the screen. But it is like a grain of sand in an ocean. Travis is a competent actress and quite beautiful, however, she was miscast. Heather Thomas or even Tanya Roberts would have been perfect. Omar was perfectly cast, but his character was spineless. Given this role today with perhaps an Ashley Judd or a Sarah Gellar as Jessica, and a fearless director/screenwriter and an NC-17 rating, a huge blockbuster could be brought to the screen. Of course the actresses would have to consent to being nude in the picture more than Emmannuel Beart was in La Belle Noiseusse, and would have to have no fear of strong scenes of sexuality in order for the film to work.
 Orientalism Lives! January 5, 2000
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
Harem is a silly film for several reasons including it is insulting and eurocentric. Chalk up another Victorian heavy breather to a simplistic storyline that finds the Anglo-English virgin the center of yet another cloistered harem fantasy in which the white women rule the roost. And what a roost, Ava Gardner as the first wife, aging but still beautiful, she is second banana to Cherie Lughi and Nancy Travers -- in their dreams! The evil rooster in the competitive hen house is Omar Shariff, a waste of talent as is Gardner. Art Malik manages to bring some humor and dignity to the role of stereotypic eastern male, but again, the mindset that brought this film to the screen is dated. Not one for the video library.
 Starts out fair, but gets worse April 9, 1999
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
With a title like the Harem, one doesn't in-depth, thoughtful commentaries. One expects escapism. However, Harem delivers a surprisingly...pleasent view of a harem that considers both sides of the issueUnfortunately, there's not much else to recommend it. We'll just say that subtletly is not a goal here. In the first five minutes, we learn that our young heroine is the spirited daughter of a dead American woman who can shoot a rifle *without even aiming*. Frankly, her fiance Charles is far more believable, and my favorite of the cast. Unfortunately, he's soon reduced to a minimalist, thankless role. The first half of the movie if fine, even if it does skirt the edge of kinkiness. However, in a movie about a harem, this is only to be expected. However, the second half takes a nose dive right when the leading man and woman do something unbelievably stupid. I'll leave it to your imagination. There are only three things in this movie that make it worth seeing, and I'm not quite certain that they weigh out the bad. Number one is Charles, the hopelessly proper English Ambassador who I shall henceforth refer to as "the third wheel". Next is Omar Sharif, who does well with the odd position he's put into of the likable-one-minute-hated-the-next Sultan. The third is the view, limited and cramped though it becomes, of the harem's woman and their fluttering devotion to their Sultan. In the end, the characters become card board cut-outs mouthing out their parts in a documentary-turned-romance-novel. But the beginning is good, and if you're in the mood for some escapism... Be my guest.
Fabulous! A visual feast, Awsome music! Great acting! February 9, 1999
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
While all of the actors, especially Nancy Travis, were excellent in this film, I noticed that on this web site, the review of the cast does not even mention Art Malik, who played Tarek Pasha (sp?). To me, he was the shining star. His character was the one who won the Jessica's heart and in the process found his own. He was the exquisitely handsome, exciting, element that made this story shine! And he did it so well! Even the sound of his voice could melt the hardest stone. Shame on you! I noticed a couple of inconsistancies in the synopsis and review of this video: The girl was spotted on the train, by one of the revolutionaries during a raid, which had nothing to do with her, but when the revolutionaries were caught and sentenced to death, by the Sutan, the revolutionary leader was told by the man who had seen her that she was the only possible way to free his men, so he had her kidnapped and then traded her into the harem for his mens' lives, she was never actually sold.
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