Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair
| Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Written by |
Alberto Negrin Sergio Donati |
| Directed by | Alberto Negrin |
| Starring |
Burt Lancaster Eva Marie Saint Robert Culp Joseph Nasser |
| Theme music composer | Ennio Morricone |
| Country of origin | United States Germany Italy France |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Ruzzolini |
| Running time | 180 min |
| Release | |
| Original release | April 29, 1990 |
Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair (1990) is a television action-drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Eva Marie Saint and is based on the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking. The film was directed by Alberto Negrin.
1985, Alexandria. A group of Palestinian terrorists of the PLO embarks on the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro with the purpose of reach Haifa and perform a suicide mission against Israel. However, when they're found out during the trip, they decide to hijack the ship and take all passengers in hostage: among them are Mr. Leon Klinghoffer (Burt Lancaster), a disabled Jewish-American, and his wife Mrs Marilyn Klinghoffer. Given the situation, the terrorists change their purposes, asking for the liberation of almost 50 other Palestinian terrorists detained in Israel, but both Egypt and Israel refuse to negotiate.
Plus this, when even Syria refuses the entrance of the Achille Lauro in Tartus, the terrorists' leader Molqi (Joseph Nasser) kills Klinghoffer in retaliation and forces two sailors to throw his body overboard.
To solve the situation, the PLO leader Yasser Arafat orders to one of his man, Abu Abbas (which however is even the mind behind the failed suicide mission against Israel) to act as a negotiator for the Egyptian Government, and thanks to him the terrorists accept to let the ship and the hostages free in exchange for a safe return to Palestina.
However, immediately after Abbas and the terrorists have left for Tunis aboard of an Egyptian plane, Klinghoffer's execution is discovered by the authorities (since Molqi had forced the Achille Lauro's Captain to lie about the murder in front of the negotiators, since the condition for negotiate was his word that all of the passengers were alive), and at that point President Reagan orders to a couple of F-14 and a Delta Force's division led by General Daevis to intercept the plane, force it to land in the Sicilian NATO base of Sigonella and then arrest the terrorists.
...
Wikipedia