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Gunn: Two armies, both dying of thirst, fighting over an empty well. That don't sum it up...
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Leroux: When have the Nazi's ever shown mercy? What we have, we keep! Try to take it if you want!
Von Falken: You keep? You keep what? Your country? We took that easily enough. Accept my terms... or I will send you to hell.
Leroux: [grins, then pulls his knife] Join me.
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Gunn: Don't you die on me, Waco!
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Gunn: Water for guns. One pint, for one rifle. One quart, for one mortar. Water for guns. That's the deal.
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Gunn: They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn them. By the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them, lest we forget.
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Williams: You might get to Berlin on that tank of yours, yet.
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Leroux: I hate them all.
Bates: Well, it's only right. A bloody shame to go about shooting your friends.
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Leroux: I like your cigarettes.
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Von Falken: You've come a long way, Sergeant. You Americans must have a taste for lost causes.
Gunn: Well, with all respects, Major, I'm not the guy with a bunch of casualties lying around for the buzzards to pick.
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Von Falken: Where is the Sergeant?
Leroux: Oh, d?sole. I'm all they could spare. The others are having tea.
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Von Falken: Surrender your arms and you can go free, with as much food and water as you can carry.
Gunn: Well... I don't think so. We like it here.
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Von Falken: Smash the British flank? I couldn't even take an Arab brothel with this rabble.
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Von Falken: Where is your officer?
Gunn: Well, our Captain is British, sir. You know how the British are. After a little action, they like to wash up before teatime.
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Amazon.com
It took more than 25 years for another Clive Cussler novel to come to the screen after the financial and critical disaster of Raise the Titanic. Based on Cussler's oddly landlocked adventure, Sahara finds the author's hero, Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey)--a sort of all-American, high seas variation of James Bond--in Africa looking for a Confederate ironclad ship that impossibly might have ended up there. Soon he and his faithful sidekick Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) are lost in another adventure, discovering a deadly contaminate being tracked by a beautiful doctor (Penelope Cruz). The results are checkered: there's no one outstanding sequence, but the action is enjoyably varied, while the thrills are mild yet not bombastic or gratuitous. The cast are all adept in their roles, yet the only one who sparkles is the scene-stealing Zahn, cast against type; McConaughey, who also produced, knows he might be starting a franchise character and plays it safe. He's never as dangerous as Cussler's hero is on the page (except in his introduction), and in fact, the whole movie plays towards comedy, infused by a soundtrack of 70s FM radio monsters. Cussler fanatics may not like this lighter fare, especially with the archeological portion (a Cussler strong point) not fully embraced, but with a very, very likable cast and colorful settings, Sahara is a kindler, gentler action film that has all the elements in place for a better, more memorable franchise if anyone cares to attempt it. --Doug Thomas
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