Photo Commentary: Sahara
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/595/5958....html?fromint=1Sahara, the treasure-hunt adventure flick starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz and William H. Macy, opens April 8th. The movie follows the devil-may-care relic hunter, Dirk Pitt, a man "no woman could completely possess." The character is featured in a series of books by author Clive Cussler. For this initial celluloid incarnation of Pitt, Matthew McConaughey (Reign of Fire) puts on the adventurer's boots. And with this, Paramount hopes Sahara will bring in enough moola to put a sequel in motion, effectively creating a Dirk Pitt franchise. (It's OK to dream.) It's formulaic. It's a road movie. It's a buddy movie. But you know what? It's fun. That being said, when the movie opens, try not to pay too much attention to the film snobs who certainly will pan it (and then some). Sahara's just fun.
Near the beginning of the movie, here's McConaughey as Pitt talking to Admiral James Sandecker, played by William H. Macy. You'll notice the item Pitt's holding in his right hand. It's an extremely rare coin. Pitt believes the existence of the coin and where it was found lends credence to a theory of his: that an ironclad warship from the Civil War is likely thousands of miles from where any rational person might think it would be, and it can be found. Pitt believes the ship foundered somewhere on the Nile river in Africa. What he's trying to do here by showing Sandecker the coin is to convince the Admiral to let him borrow his boat, just for a few days, to explore the river. With reservations, and of course firmly believing that he's being hoodwinked by Pitt into another foolish operation, Sandecker allows him to use the boat. (That's Pitt's colleague Rudi Gunn, played by Rainn Wilson – soon to be seen in NBC's take on The Office – in the background browsing the buffet table.)
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