OK, how’s this for a crazy movie plot? It’s the middle of the Civil War, and there’s a sea battle raging between the Union and the Confederacy. A Confederate ship manages to escape from the Union forces and, miraculously, crosses the Atlantic. Reaching Africa, it encounters an incredibly powerful, once-in-a-century storm and is blown off course and into the Niger River in West Africa. Somehow the ship makes it all the way up the Niger into what is now the country of Mali, where it runs aground and eventually becomes part of the native folklore of the region.
Flash forward about 140 years. Dirk and Al are two swashbuckling men who work for NUMA (the National Underwater and Marine Agency), which tries to uncover sunken artifacts. They take it upon themselves to find this “ship of the desert,” in this case not a camel. In the process, they hook up with Eva, a doctor working for the World Health Organization who is attempting to find the source of a plague which is killing people in the region. Eva, of course, is beautiful and resourceful.
Sound preposterous? It is. Sahara is sort of a cross between the James Bond and Indiana Jones movies, minus the sex found in Bond. But if you can willingly suspend your disbelief, you’ll probably have a good time watching this movie. It has some negatives, but the positives outweigh them. Here’s why:
On the positive side:
Acting: Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, and Penelope Cruz do excellent jobs of portraying the characters. They’re energetic and believable in their unbelievable adventures. Eva is not a Bond girl. She uses her brain.
Setting: A good deal of the movie was filmed in Morocco and has gorgeous scenes of the Sahara Desert and realistic-looking vistas of river, plain, and village.
Excitement: The movie never slows down and has lots of nail-biting episodes, some of which are at least as good as those in the Indiana Jones films.
Dialogue: Sahara has some of the sharpest, funniest movie dialogue in a long time. The characters actually talk as real people talk, and there’s not much objectionable language. At a particularly dangerous moment, for example, the wisecracking Al says: “I just wonder when we’re going to have to sit down and evaluate our decision-making paradigm.” Great timing.
Values: Sahara doesn’t deal much with issues. However, Dirk, Al, and Eva are the good guys, and they and the other good folks are kind and helpful. The movie looks straight at Africa without condescension and allows us a glimpse of other cultures.
On the negative side:
Implausibility: As noted above, the premise is hard to accept (though meticulously worked out once you do).
Language: I know I said there isn’t much objectionable language here, but there is a bit. Jesus’ name is used in vain once, and there are four or five instances of the “Oh my _____” misuse of the Lord’s name. There are a few mild epithets.
Violence: The film is rated PG-13 and has a number of violent (though not gratuitously so) scenes. This isn’t a movie for children.
Clive Cussler, author of the Dirk Pitt best-selling adventure novels on which Sahara is based, has said he doesn’t have sex or four-letter words in his books. The producers have strayed a little from his guidelines, but not far. It’s getting harder and harder these days to find anything to see that doesn’t dishonor the Lord or offend us. Sahara is one of the few pictures out there that at least passes the minimal test.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 2 ¾ stars.
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