Sahara-Sukhpal Dhillon
Sahara is an amazing movie, not just because the film was quite witty and amusing, but because it offered an interesting perspective on the foreign policy of the United States during World War II. During the film I thought of the movie being a well made propaganda film. An entertaining part of the story line was that every character on the Allied forces sides was from various regions (Sussex, Brooklyn, Texas, South Africa, Sudan, and France. They made these characters quite likable in comparison to their counterparts the Germans and Italians. Though the Italian was seen as a character that did have some virtue, the film does an excellent job when he renounces Mussolini announcing that Mussolini was no Hitler. Thus when the Italian dies he dies with honor. The film tries also does a marvelous job portraying the Nazi German officer as barbaric in comparison to the Sudanese man who was treated as a second class citizen by the German officer. In one scene the Germans shoot one of the allied soldiers in the back (incredibly dishonorable) whereas the Sudanese man dies fighting to protect the allied soldiers (honorable). The captured German officer was also quite kniving and dishonest in comparison to the Italian soldier.
Throughout the film the director clearly made it clear that message was that war effort was the most crucial thing for all Americans. Humphrey Bogart’s character is quoted to say “its everyman’s duty to do what’s right for his country.” Thus the allied forces men were risking their lives to defend the territory in order to get the message of Nazi movement across. Though Humphrey Bogart says that they have a 1 in 100 shot of surviving they are willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of their nations. One line I loved was by the British soldier was that the allied forces were stronger than the Germans because of their dignity of freedom.” Though this film was relatively well put together it is clear it is more of a propaganda film that the U.S. government clearly had a hand in.