Columbia's biggest hit of 1943, Sahara confirmed the superstar status Humphrey Bogart attained with his Warner Brothers' North African adventure, Casablanca (1942). Surrounded by the Germans on three sides, Bogart's tough-as-they-come Sergeant Joe Gunn takes his tank and a crew of American, British and French soldiers into the Sahara to reach the retreating allied forces. But when they find that the only water for 100 miles is also the target of a German battalion they decide to take a desperate stand. Early scenes present the characters with assorted perils: thirst,... sandstorms and a German air attack. The characters are rather stereotypical: the cowardly Italian prisoner, the Frenchman obsessed with food, the German humourless and fanatical, though the British come out well, and there's a sympathetically drawn black British Sudanese soldier (Rex Ingram). The director was Zoltan Korda, the man behind such British classics as The Four Feathers (1939), and though Sahara lacks the scale of that adventure, Korda's experience pays off in mounting the extended and suspenseful siege/action climax. With support from Lloyd Bridges and Dan Duryea, Oscar-nominated photography by Rudolph Mate and a fine score by Miklós Rózsa, Sahara is a taut, gripping desert war thriller which wouldn't be bettered until Ice Cold in Alex (1958). On the DVD: The black and white picture is presented in the original 4:3 ratio and looks very good for its age, though there are numerous brief instances of substantial print damage. Audio is strong, clear mono. Given the age of the movie it is not surprising the only extras are filmographies and a small selection of beautifully reproduced original advertising posters. The film is presented with alternative soundtracks in French, Italian and Spanish, as well as with English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Finnish subtitles. There are trailers for The Caine Mutiny (1954), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). --Gary S Dalkin [show more]
An Anglo-American cast, a thoughtfully written script and a well-balanced story, so what is the result? - A very good war movie!
It probably ranks as one of the best and most considered American war films Hollywood had made thus far (1943), which is quite remarkable when you consider that WWII was still being fiercely fought with the outcome far from being certain. It is amazingly restrained on the anti-German rhetoric and gives the Americans and British equal credit (no gung-ho "lets go and kick ass" American jingoism here).
Because the story is intelligent and balanced with characters you can actually believe in, the film has been able to stand the test of time exceptionally well.
Maybe it has got a touch of the boy"s own adventure about it when compared to today"s cynical standards, but the world was a different place then with faith and duty was genuinely put above personal ambition or survival.
All in all, it makes for a cracking movie and is well worth adding this DVD to your library collection.
We will publish your review of Sahara [1943] on DVD within a few days as long as it meets our guidelines.
None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Master explorer Dirk Pitt goes on the adventure of a lifetime of seeking out a lost Civil War battleship known as the "Ship of Death" in the deserts of West Africa while helping a UN doctor being hounded by a ruthless dictator.
A semi-propaganda film made by the Americans to show how the Second World War was affecting the various European nations. Sergeant Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) leads an American unit who escape from the fiasco of the Battle of Tobruk and then pick up stranded European soldiers as they cross the Sahara Desert. The motley band of survivors finally have to outwit a huge group of German soldiers in a battle for supremacy over that most precious of desert commodities, a well. The film was later re-made as a Western, 'The Last of the Comanches'.
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy
