Bogart in "Sahara "- DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[SteveGon]

Ahhhhh! One of my favorite Bogart movies has finally arrived on dvd thanks to Columbia. Sahara tells the story of Sgt. Joe Gunn (Bogart) and his tank crew who must retreat across the Sahara after the fall of Tobruk. Along the way, they pick up a group of stranded British soldiers, a Sudanese warrior and his Italian prisoner, a French resistance fighter, and a downed Nazi pilot. Running low on water, Tambul the Sudanese leads Gunn and the others to an abandoned fortress where they hope to find a well. They soon discover that a battalion of German soldiers is also desperate for water...
Sahara is a tight little war movie that doesn't waste time with trite romantic sub-plots. In fact, there are no women in this film. This is a movie about soldiers in a tight spot, killing and being killed, but always behaving nobly. Except for those Nazis, of course. They'll shoot you in the back!
There isn't anything outstanding about this disc as far as specs are concerned, but it's a decent package. The picture quality is fine - the grain is there, but it's not overly distracting. Blacks are deep and the details are sharp. This is no Citizen Kane-type restoration, but it'll do. The mono track sounds just fine - there's none of that "tinny" sound associated with older movies and I never had a problem understanding the dialogue.
Extras include filmographies, trailers, production notes, and vintage advertising. This is all pretty light and I wish they'd included at least something on the actual WWII desert campaigns.
Included on the disc is a French mono track as well as English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.
I recommend this disc to WWII movie buffs and Bogart fans. You know who you are, run out and pick up this dvd!
Film rating: :star: :star: :star: 1/2
Disc rating: :star: :star: :star:

 

[Blu]

I like this movie a lot! I can't wait to order it!

I also liked the remake they did of it a few years ago. Jim Belushi starred and closely followed the original.

 

[GlennH]

Thanks for the comments.
If you're thinking of buying this, do yourself a favor and don't order this from Amazon.com.
I had it preordered (part of a larger order) because they had a very nice price on it (I think they had the MSRP wrong for awhile). Anyway, although it was released December 11, Amazon *still* hasn't shipped my copy. Their "availability" estimate continues to show 9-10 days, but it's now over 3 weeks and counting. I sent them an inquiry and they replied that it was a very popular title and they didn't yet receive it from their suppliers but expect a shipment in the next few days, blah-blah...

 

[SteveGon]

I can vouch for that. I pre-ordered this title from Amazon (along with The Big Heat and The Elephant Man), but they kept pushing back the shipping date. I finally gave up on them, cancelled the order, and decided to give Deep Discount DVD a try. I ordered the discs from DDD on Dec. 28th and received them on Jan. 3rd. Saved a buck, too! I'm not saying Amazon is bad, mind you, their customer service is usually excellent...

 

[BrianP]

You can count me as another who ordered this DVD from Amazon and I am still waiting for it. I wrote to them and they gave me the same story about it being a popular title. I actually think they are not being totally truthful about that but will keep my order awhile longer since the price I preordered is the cheapest I can find. Also a big stack of DVDs that need to be watched puts me in no rush to have it now. I enclosed a copy of the message Amazon sent me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Steve,
I must say you have excellent taste in films! I've been waiting patiently for this dvd release ever since the first rumors about it materialized back in 1999/2000 time frame. Now, it's here and I'm not disappointed. This film featured some great character actors such as Dan Duryea, J. Carrol Naish, Rex Ingram, and Bruce Bennett. Also, how do you like a young Lloyd Bridges playing a British soldier? Anyhow, this WWII film has some tremendous dialogue and great action sequences. Furthermore, the great Zoltan Korda wrote and directed a fine film and Bogart of course, was great as always in his part as Sgt. Joe Gunn and we can't forget "Lulubelle".
Crawdaddy