Sahara (2005)
Directed by Breck Eisner
Written by James V. Hart, Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz, Lambert Wilson, Rainn Wilson, William H. Macy
Release Date April 8th, 2005
Published April 8th, 2005
Author Clive Cussler had vowed never to work with Hollywood again after what they did to his 1982 novel Raise The Titanic. That film was a massive commercial and artistic failure and Cussler was devastated. 23 Years later Cussler has finally returned to Hollywood and once again he has been disappointed. Sahara, based on Cussler's 1994 best seller that continues the adventures of Cussler's signature action hero Dirk Pitt, once again has Cussler fighting Hollywood in court while a movie based on his work stinks up theaters.
Matthew McConaughey stars in Sahara as Dirk Pitt, oceanographer and adventurer. Part Indiana Jones and well... part Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt seeks buried treasure and occasionally prevents a global ecological disaster. His latest adventure has him and his sidekick Al (Steve Zahn) chasing the legend of a civil war ship stocked with gold that somehow floated from the Carolinas to the Sahara desert.
Parallel to Dirk and Al's adventure is that of a World Health Organization doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz). The doc is following a virus across Africa and crosses paths with Dirk when she is attacked on the beach by thugs trying to keep her from the source of the outbreak. Dirk saves her life and flirts up a storm and the adventure begins again.
The remaining plot revolves around the virus which is linked to a wealthy industrialist in the middle of the desert, Massard played by Lambert Wilson. The industrialist is dumping nuclear waste with the help of a warlord, General Kazim (Jude Akuwidike) who is involved in a civil war with a group of peasants apparently named after an American car, Tuareg. Dirk and co. must stop the nuclear waste, punish the industrialist and fight Kazim and maybe find the civil war ship that was nearly forgotten amid the goofy environmental plot.
Matthew McConaughey is the ideal actor for this material. With his movie star looks, oozing charisma and quick wit, he is a classic heroic leading man. Teamed with Steve Zahn as his comic sidekick and Penelope Cruz as his eye candy love interest, you have the pieces in place for a solid B-movie adventure. Unfortunately something is lost in the translation of this terrific team of actors into a coherent and entertaining action picture.
That missing element that would turn Sahara into a good movie from a mediocre rehash of action cliches is Director Breck Eisner. Directing as if he were stuck in neutral, Breck Eisner stifles the good things about Sahara, the amazing cast, with bad editing, bad pacing and a bad script penned by old friends of his rather than trained screenwriters.
Given Breck Eisner's industry credentials, you know who his father is, the adaptation of the script by his good buddies T.D Donnelly and Josh Oppenheimer seems like the whim of a charlatan. Who is going to stop the son of one of the film industry's top executives from making a movie, even if he wants to chuck the script in favor of a rewrite by his friends. Clive Cussler's worst nightmares come true in yet another adaptation that makes his already over the top brand of action novel look ridiculous.
The one truly enjoyable aspect of Sahara is the camaraderie of the cast who seem to really be having a good time. So what if the film makes absolutely no sense, the actors are all good looking, funny, charming and they are clearly having a blast. It's like watching a group of friends on the most unique vacation video in history.
Not everyone is in on the fun. Poor Lambert Wilson, The Merovingian from The Matrix sequels, is left with the worst part in the film. As the bad guy he is required to act with the least amount of motivation, logic and most of all the least amount of fun. Where Wilson clearly relished his badness in Matrix Reloaded, he seems in pain in Sahara delivering his haughty threats through gritted teeth, his French accent barely concealing his contempt for the words in the script.
The term Deus Ex Machina is latin and means a contrived plot device in a play or novel or in the case of Sahara, the entire plot of a film. Deus Ex Machina is how all of the lead characters in Sahara are able to adapt the exact knowledge needed at exactly the moment it is needed. Or how characters previously unavailable arrive just in time to make dramatic rescues or add a suspenseful twist. Whether Clive Cussler's novel rested so much on contrivance I don't know, I never read the book, but the film Sahara relies on contrivance in nearly every scene.
Deus Ex Machina is forgivable in small doses, but not when it makes up the entire film!
How acrimonious is the relationship between the makers of Sahara and writer Clive Cussler? There is still litigation pending over the changes made from Cussler's book to the movie. Cussler was given assurances by the producers that he would be able to veto any changes he did not agree with. That agreement was made before Breck Eisner came aboard as Director.
Having never read the book Sahara I don't know how extensive the changes were, but given the flaws littered throughout the film version, I would tend to side with Clive Cussler. Sahara it seems did not turn out the way anyone could have reasonably wanted it to, but for Clive Cussler it is now twice that he has felt such extensive disappointment.
