Bogie in the Desert
Following the fall of Tobruk, Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart), his faltering tank and his rag bag crew start retreating across the Sahara. Their journey sees them pick up various allies and also prisoners with a Sudanese corporal directing them to where he knows a fortress sits in the desert and where hopefully they will find some much needed water. Whilst there a group of German solders arrive who are willing to trade some food for water but Joe won't trade with the enemy which leads to this ragbag group of men coming under attack hoping that support will find them.
It's over 70 years since director Zoltan Korda made "Sahara" and cinema has changed a lot since then from what audiences expect visually to what audiences want from their actors. One thing which never changes is the effectiveness of a good story and as such "Sahara" still entertains now thanks to this basic war time story which not only sees a rag bag group of men trying to survive the desert with out the essentials of water but also deal with coming under attack with little in the way of resources to defend themselves. If you remade "Sahara" now there would be little needed to be done to the actual storyline to make it work.
In fact I reckon if Zoltan Korda was alive now I am sure he would deliver a seriously impressive remake with use of modern technology to deliver even greater visuals than he was already delivering. That is the other thing which still stands up when you watch "Sahara" now as whilst this doesn't feel like an epic movie the cinematography does a wonderful job of using this fortress in the middle of nowhere to great effect.
But as I said cinema has changed over the years and as such whilst there are many who still love Humphrey Bogart and his typical leading man performance it doesn't do it for me. Of course part of the trouble is that the dialogue in "Sahara" is understandably old school, riddled with tough statements rather than flowing conversation which suits Bogart's style but it doesn't work for me.
What this all boils down to is that "Sahara" is for me a good movie, a good war time adventure movie with a nice storyline which progresses to an action climax. But it is a product of its era with typical acting from Humphrey Bogart which will be enjoyable for his fans but feel forced for those like me who are not such fans.
