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It's June, 1942, in the desert of North Africa; a 4-man U.S. Army tank unit led by Sgt. Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) has been ordered to abandon their training mission and to retreat. Because of increased Nazi activity surrounding them, they are instructed to retreat to the South, a route which will require miles of harsh desert travel. With their tank, Lulubelle, damaged, and a minimal amount of water, the retreat will be difficult, but only a short distance into the journey, it becomes even more so.
Stranded in the blazing desert are five Allied soldiers, all somehow the only men left from their respective units. Though the American's water supply is hardly adequate to take on more men, they know that they really have no choice, for to leave a man behind means sure death. Because they need to live so they can fight again, the Americans take the Allies on board their tank.
As the nine soldiers make their way across the desert, desperately in search of water, two men are struggling through the harsh sands. One of them is an Ally---a British Sudanese, whose company died in battle; with him is his Italian prisoner (J. Carroll Naish). With a knowledge of the desert terrain, the Sudanese soldier informs Sgt. Gunn that there is a caravan trail leading to a well 160 miles away; able to guide them there, he, also, is taken on board the tank. Although Sgt. Gunn at first intends to leave the prisoner behind in the desert since there isn't enough water or food for him, he relents and takes him on board.
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As these 11 thirsty men traverse the unyielding desert in a tank low on fuel and plagued with engine problems, a Nazi aircraft fires on them, injuring one of their own. Although they shoot the plane down and take its pilot prisoner, it just means one more mouth needing water...in a land of sandstorms where water is nearly non-existent. The Nazis, as well, are in need of water and seeking a well; inevitably, the paths of the two armies are destined to cross. How many men will survive the grueling trek across the desert?
Filmed on location in the deserts of California and Arizona, Sahara gives a very realistic portrayal of the difficulty of desert warfare. I could definitely feel the men's thirst and fatigue; in fact, I could quite relate to it, as my husband, kids, and I had a desert encounter of our own five years ago. On the 470-foot-high sand dunes of southwest Idaho's Bruneau Dunes State Park (75-minutes from where we live), we found ourselves without water and with a long, arduous hike to get back to our car. How we got ourselves in such a position is a long, complicated story, but suffice to say, we were exhausted and dying of thirst...and it was in the early evening during the second week of May (translation: unlike soldiers in the North African campaign, we had no hot mid-day sun bearing down on us from a cloudless sky.) My experience with the harshness of desert conditions makes Sahara a very real film to me (even without the warfare). I could literally feel the dust and sand and the parched throats of the men.
The acting in the film is quite good, and there are some very profound moments; of course, there are also the usual flag-waving moments. All in all, it's a very good, 4-star film, which I highly recommend, especially as we observe Memorial Day and remind ourselves that freedom isn't free.
Just an aside---the U.S. premiere of Sahara was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Alhtough not on the TCM schedule in the near future, Sahara is out on DVD, so it should be fairly easy to track down. War film lovers ought to quite enjoy it.
Happy viewing!!
