Courtney Marlow's SAHARA Reflections
I am extremely irritated to say the least because I just typed my entire reflection and as I submitted it I got booted off. This is frustrating because I know that my second reflection will not say the same thing as I so perfectly stated the first time.
The movie Sahara portrayed most of the themes as outlined by the U.S. government for Hollywood during WWII. The most obvious were the issues of war, the nature of the enemy, and the United Nations. Also notable was the idea of the fighting forces. I would describe the specifics of all of these themes, but since I just spent some time doing so for nothing, and since many of my classmates described these themes so well, I won't spend anymore time on them.
What I found most interesting about the film, was that although the producers filled Sahara with tons of propaganda and pro-American ideas, I saw an underlying theme that connected every country in the film. Every single soldier in the movie had one main drive- to obtain water. I saw this as a way to promote equality among the nations. Even though Sahara portrayed a war against the Germans, the film portrayed a war against the elements. Every country in the movie was essentially fighting for the same thing. The scenes in the film were so sandy and arid and miserable, that even as I watched, I became thirsty and uncomfortable. The severe desparation for water in the film is what connected all of the soldiers to one another, whether this was intended or not. It is important to note that water is what kept the battle going; it seemed as though in the end, Germans cared more about retrieving water than defeating the Americans.
So, I really enjoyed the movie Sahara. I thought the producers did a great job of stuffing the film with propaganda. And although the film's main purpose was to promote American patriotism, it provided a light way to educate, although in an extremely biased way, the people on such an important matter. I think the U.S. government did a great job infiltrating Hollywood during the time of WWII, however, I don't think a strategy such as this would prove successful today.