THE SECRET OF THE SAHARA (1988) ** They test your credulity right away: Michael York is supposed to be an American. If you're willing to fall for it, they'll test you again and again, believe me. The secret of the Sahara appears to be that you can't take three steps without falling over at least five people on horseback, the place suffers major overpopulation and the only camels that I saw were in Timbuktu. Literally. Ennio Morricone gets way more time than usual for his scores, and diversifies wildly and to great affect. Some of it is even downright Arabic, but he just can't stop himself from eventually drowning it all out with Mexican horns, what with all those horses running around and all. The entire thing is permeated with Spaghetti Western sensibilities anyway, so it it all works out right. James Farentino, Miguel Bosé and David Soul (!) are pretty good as the tough guys, but I couldn't really buy Ben Kingsley as the local oasis pacifist. Andie MacDowell works really well as a desert blossom in a veil-she's got those dark, expressive eyes-but when she talks.she and Michael have to have several sets of the most ridiculous lines in the history of lines, and she only compounds matters by sounding like she's reading them for the first time in abject disbelief, all the while thinking something like, "Well, how can we fix this?" I'm not gonna lie to you and say that it's great or that I didn't enjoy it.
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