Since
Part One about foreign-made films,
I snagged a DVD of Queen
of the Desert on
Amazon. Nicole Kidman does a creditable job but the script ignores a
lot of what Gertrude Bell accomplished ‒
her cartography, her archaeological finds, her founding of the great
museum in Baghdad (where she died) ‒
and seems to end with her initial posting in Cairo. Absolutely
spectacular cinematography, though.
Hollywood
(and other first-world film studios) has also produced its share
of movies that involve camels ‒
or deserts ‒
or Middle East settings. Leaving aside classic biblical epics,
herewith a few that I have seen (the country in parentheses is the
story's setting):
A
Hologram for the King (Saudi Arabia) 2016
Overexposure of Tom Hanks as
American salesman falling for forbidden Saudi beauty; waste of time
and credibility.
The
Hurt Locker (Iraq) 2008
Hyper new guy in the army's
bomb disposal unit disrupts their routine, putting them all at risk.
Oscar winner.
The
Kingdom (Saudi Arabia) 2007
Americans investigate
terrorist bombing of their Riyadh compound; muddled politics; echoes
of Nelson DeMille's novel Panther that was set in Yemen.
Syriana
(an oil country) 2005
Iran
or an Emirate-like setting; complicated petropolitics and story
lines; George Clooney is prominent.
Sahara
(W. Africa) 2005
Clive Cussler action; search
for hidden treasure in desert sand; Matthew McConaughey. Several
previous films of the same name (with Bogart in 1943).
Black
Hawk Down (Somalia) 2001
Many
awards for the film based on the American raid on Mogadishu.
Three
Kings (Iraq) 1999
Soldiers
after the first Gulf War hunt for Kuwaiti gold supposedly hidden in
the desert; they discover their humanitarian consciences. George
Clooney stars.
The
Man Who Would Be King (India) 1975
Beloved
movie of Kipling's tale of two British soldiers who take over
fictional Kafiristan; sneaking it in here because what's not to love
with Connery and Caine chewing exotic scenery?
Jesus
Christ Superstar (Israel) 1973
Andrew
Lloyd-Webber's rock opera in a mesmerizing take on Holy Week.
Lawrence
of Arabia (Jordan) 1962
Who
hasn't seen this classic? O'Toole sweeps to victory (and
cinematic history) in the 1917 Arab Revolt as the Ottoman Empire
declines.
A
few I've missed:
The
Little Prince (Sahara) 2015
Animated
version of the delightful Saint-Exupéry
story; previously made in 1974 with Gene Wilder as the fox.
The
Men Who Stare at Goats
(Kuwait/Iraq) 2009
Reporter George Clooney
pursues strange story of a sci-fi army on a mission to establish
world peace. A real box office bomb?
Cairo
Time (Egypt) 2009
A
gentle, brief romance between an American woman and an Egyptian man.
Sand
and Sorrow (Darfur)
2007
Documentary narrated by
activist George Clooney; the humanitarian crisis in Darfur which was
largely being ignored by the rest of the world.
The Sheltering Sky
(Sahara) 1990
Has to be in here somewhere
because Bertolucci-directed classic, but the aimless characters
appear to be bleak, bleak, bleak.
The only remaining question
is:
How
many desert movies can George Clooney be in?!
©
2017 Brenda Dougall Merriman
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