For the most part a fairly ordinary adventure film, but with some oddities - good and bad - which occasionally raise it from the average. Brian Keith is the star. His impersonation of Teddy Roosevelt, warts and all, is masterful - and very relevant a hundred years on.
Candice Bergen has more meat to her role than women get in most romanticised Arab adventures, but Sean Connery is a disaster. His Scottish accent constantly intrudes, making his most serious moments comical. His motives are obscure, his actions out of character and his acting one-dimensional.
John Milius keeps the action moving sufficiently fast so that the anomalies don't stick out too badly until the end of the film, when the stereotypes - Prussian officer, American marine, wily Arab - become preposterous. A real hotchpotch!
Candice Bergen has more meat to her role than women get in most romanticised Arab adventures, but Sean Connery is a disaster. His Scottish accent constantly intrudes, making his most serious moments comical. His motives are obscure, his actions out of character and his acting one-dimensional.
John Milius keeps the action moving sufficiently fast so that the anomalies don't stick out too badly until the end of the film, when the stereotypes - Prussian officer, American marine, wily Arab - become preposterous. A real hotchpotch!