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SAHARA
(Zoltán Korda, 1943)
Release date: 20 January 2025
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK premiere)

Pre-order here

Humphrey Bogart (The Harder They Fall), Bruce Bennett (Undertow) and J Carrol Naish (The Lives of a Bengal Lancer) star in Sahara, a thrilling tale of World War II heroism from director Zoltán Korda (A Woman’s Vengeance).

Separated from his unit following the fall of Tobruk, Master Sergeant Joe Gunn (Bogart) and his crew flee in a tank across the Sahara, picking up a variety of stragglers and prisoners along the way. With their survival entirely dependent on the water from a depleted well, the group must defend it against a whole German battalion.

Produced by Harry Joe Brown (Buchanan Rides Alone) and shot under harsh conditions in the unforgiving landscape of the Colorado Desert, the production of Sahara utilised an entire US Army division as extras, adding to the film’s gritty sense of realism.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with screenwriter and novelist C Courtney Joyner (2025)
• Ehsan Khoshbakht on ‘Sahara’ (2025): appreciation by the curator, filmmaker, and editor of The Lady with the Torch: Columbia Pictures 1929–1959
• Building a Tank (1942): documentary short on the work of the Detroit Tank Arsenal, and the manufacture and testing of the M-3 Lee tank which prominently features in Sahara
• The Siege of Tobruk (1942): documentary short produced by the UK’s Army Film Unit detailing the World War II military campaign in the North African port of Tobruk during 1941, which preceded the events portrayed in Sahara
• Original theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Imogen Sara Smith, an archival interview with actor Kurt Kreuger, an archival on-set profile of Humphrey Bogart, a look at how the film’s promotion assisted the war effort, new writing on the short films, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK
• All features subject to change

#PHILE459B
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5060697924046

domino harvey wrote: Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:13 pm Sahara (Zoltan Korda 1943) Exciting African WWII tale with Bogart leading his crew of men in an armed defense of a non-existent desert oasis. Some intriguing wartime characterizations result from the film's sympathetic treatment of an Italian prisoner of war (An Oscar-nommed J Carrol Naish) versus the spiteful german captive (the suggestion here seems to be that Italian soldiers fighting for the Axis were more victims than complicit partners), and the film gives ample screentime to many of the more tortuous effects of being stuck in the desert without water.

Tuco wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 6:10 amExcellent action sequences, and of course, lots of dead Nazis. My apologies to any fascists here on the forum (not).

How many Hollywood studio movies from the 1940s, for example, can you name that feature a black character who not only is treated as an equal but does the single most heroic act in the picture? Go ahead, I’ll wait.

MichaelB wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 10:00 am

Tuco wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 6:10 amExcellent action sequences, and of course, lots of dead Nazis. My apologies to any fascists here on the forum (not).

Although it's impressively nuanced on the subject of members of the Axis powers, with Giuseppe treated far more sympathetically despite notionally being on the same side as the Nazis - even in 1943 there was a general understanding that the Italians were far less committed to the cause of Fascism than their German counterparts (as the film pretty much spells out in a dialogue exchange).

Tuco wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 6:10 am J. Carrol Naish (Irish-American) as Giuseppe was nominated for a best supporting actor academy Award. Soon after, he was a mad Japanese scientist in the first "Batman" serial. Talk about range!