SAHARA

US, 1983, 106 minutes, Colour.
Brooke Shields, Lambert Wilson, John Rhys Davies, Horst Buchholz, John Mills, Perry Lang, Cliff Potts.
Directed by Andrew V. Mc Laglan.

Sahara is one of those spectacular action adventures that uses every desert cliche that it is easy to poke fun at and laugh at. Yet in its own preposterous way it is an enjoyable action adventure. Produced by the prolific Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the film has no pretensions to art. It was directed by Andrew V. Mc Laglen, veteran of many John Wayne and James Stewart westerns and such action films as The Wild Geese and North Sea Hijack.

The film is a vehicle for Brooke Shields - a very tall girl who has the chance to be both glamorous and, for the feminists, very active in being disguised as a man, joining in fist fights, driving a racing car, helping the desert tribes against their enemies. She is joined by Lambert Wilson, from Five Days One Summer, as the attractive sheikh. Sir John Mills appears as Cambridge - in a quite strange, even laughable role.

The desert scenery and the atmosphere of the late '20s are quite spectacular - from races to tribal fights to the final riding into the sunset. One might note that the film was set in 1927 - a year after Valentino captured world-wide audiences as The Sheikh.

1. Entertaining adventure? Traditional desert cliches? Derivative material? Designed as a spectacular entertainment vehicle for Brooke Shields? Working on that level?

2. Panavision photography, the American atmosphere, racing cars, Detroit affluence? The Sahara, the towns, the desert locations? Period, cars? Costumes? The spirit of ~he desert? Ennio Morricone's atmospheric score?

3. The film as a Brooke Shields vehicle: her image, glamour, action, age, romantic heroine - equal to the romantic sheikh?

4. The prologue with the massacre and the tribal wars? The leopards? The chase of the desert people, the gypsy boy and his survival, his helping Dale? His part in the story?

5. The transition to Detroit, the development of automobiles, testing cars, races? Detroit in the '20s? Business deals? Dale and her driving? The party, her tomboyish style, her daring? Her love for her father? The deals, the accident and his death? Her promise on his deathbed? An obvious setting-up for what was to follow?

6. Brooke Shields and the masculine-feminine style of her character? A girl driving racing cars in the '20s? Her being disguised as a boy, reaction to her, the fist fights? Her beauty? The sheikh seeing her in the town? The rules for the rally - and her enjoyment of revealing herself as a girl once they had started? Brooke Shields as a gung-ho heroine?

7. The atmosphere of Africa, the cities, customs, the exotic style, the nightclubs, the slavers and their capturing the women, the sheikhs and their way of life, affluence, power? The contrast between the American way of life and Africa?

8. The race and its competitors? The national groups? The Germans as the comic villains? The Italians? The British? The terrain, the valleys, the accidents? The two different routes? The Germans and their deal, the two cars - and the comic turns? Horst Buchholz and his comic role? The build-up to the ending and the victory? The appeal of vintage cars of the '20s?

9. Dale and her crew, the decisions, the massacre and the discovery of the bodies, the driving, Dale being abducted, kept, clashing with the sheikh's uncle, the discovery of Cambridge, the escape, the sheikh rescuing her, clash, the marriage ceremony, the romance, the promise? Dale's skill in using the dynamite? Her crew being tortured by the ants? The sheikh letting Dale go and her winning the race?

10. The picture of the tribes, their style, war, customs, marry, luxury?

11. Dale and the dynamite and the action sequences, the villain thinking she was a demon, his abducting her, the cage, the leopards and the pit, the rescue and the winning? -

12. The sheikh as a romantic type, his warlike uncle, the resumption of the war and his uncle helping him, the uncle's death? The visuals of the battle? The rescues? The perils?

13. The atmosphere of the end of the race? Dale's romantic choice -and the riding into the sunset?

14. Cliche material spectacularly presented, action, Valentino romance? Working on a popular level?