Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Sands of the Kalahari Blu-ray Movie Review

Survivor: Africa.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 18, 2011

Making last minute travel plans seems to rarely work out in the film and television world. Look what happened to all those victims of chance (fate?) who boarded Oceanic 815 for one last-minute reason after another in Lost for a good example. There’s nothing quite so cosmic going on in the 1965 potboiler Sands of the Kalahari, simply a jetliner problem that prevents a gaggle of passengers from getting to their appointed destination on time, leading them to charter a little puddle-jumper (if indeed there were puddles in the Kalahari) which has the unfortunate fate (chance?) to run into a swarm of locusts which brings the plane down and thrusts a ragtag group of survivors into the sandy wild to fend for themselves. That’s basically it, plot-wise, for Sands of the Kalahari, an interesting early entry in the disaster sweepstakes which actually gives us the disaster fairly early in the film and then lets the chips fall where they may for various characters, kind of like the formula Irwin Allen would follow years later in a series of films including The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and that wonder of Sensurround, Earthquake. Sands of the Kalahari actually may remind viewers of another film more than any Allen film, however, and a film released more or less simultaneously with Kalahari itself, namely the James Stewart starrer The Flight of the Phoenix. Unlike the Allen behemoths, both Kalahari and Phoenix are relatively small scale productions (albeit on a vast canvas) focusing on a handful of survivors and concentrating more on character than on special effects. Kalahari also evokes elements of Lord of the Flies as well as a much older film. Without spoiling anything in particular, let’s just say that a certain similarity to 1932’s iconic The Most Dangerous Game rears its ugly head throughout the film.

Cy Endfield was one of those second (frankly, maybe even third) string movie industry impresarios whose names never became overly well known, but who managed to carve out rather long-lived and surprisingly successful careers. Endfield, though American, was based in England for the latter third or so of his life, and it was from there that he made what are probably his best remembered contributions to the world of cinema, 1961’s Mysterious Island, 1964’s Zulu and 1965’s Sands of the Kalahari. Endfield had a rather impressive visual sweep as a director, something that’s instantly apparent in Kalahari, at least once the film settles down into its desert setting. If dramatically most of Endfield’s films are on the turgid side (Kalahari is certainly no exception in that regard), they are unfailingly entertaining in that old school, unpretentious way that makes the films especially well loved by those who originally saw them as kids and who now harbor perhaps rose-colored memories about how supposedly “outstanding” they are.

There’s no getting past the Gilligan’s Island aspect to Sands of the Kalahari, down to the film’s handful or so of characters, each evincing a certain type. Stuart Whitman is the requisite American big game hunter, the only one of this motley crew seemingly prepared to exist in the wild. Nigel Davenport is the initially rational pilot who starts thinking “below the belt” (so to speak) once he gets a good look at divorcee Susannah York. Theodore Bikel plays a sort of companion role to that of Kurt Kaznar in one of Irwin Allen's proto-disaster (and I don't mean that ironically) television efforts, one featuring stranded passengers in a strange world, Land of the Giants. Harry Andrews makes for a rather improbable elderly German gentleman. These characters are unabashed types, at least at first. Note, for example, how in this pre-feminist world York’s character just kind of becomes the stewardess and starts handing out coffee to the male passengers in the brief time the plane is in the air before it runs into those pesky locusts.

But then something quite interesting happens, and it elevates Sands of the Kalahari above more generic similar fare. One of the characters attempts to assert himself sexually while another attempts to assert himself in more generally dominant terms and suddenly the film is a white hot examination of human nature under incredible duress. It’s at this point that Sands of the Kalahari completely defies expectations and becomes a cracklingly good adventure yarn, one spiced with a certain atavistic element which recalls any number of other films, but which is artfully handled here by both Endfield and a crackerjack cast.

Baker and Endfield had a long collaborative history, but this film may be Baker’s best chance to shine in a leading role. Baker, strangely quite a bit like Whitman, never really took off on this side of the pond, despite several outstanding performances. Both men do extremely well in Sands of the Kalahari, and few will forget Whitman’s turn here, especially in the film’s rather shocking closing moments. York of course is a winsome, incredibly lovely actress, but she’s forced to show a steelier side here than some of her other roles allowed, and she’s similarly impressive. Endfield proves himself to be a genuinely accomplished director with this outing, managing to walk a tightrope between the vastness of the desert expanses and the incredibly intimate personal stories at the core of the film.

In lesser hands Sands of the Kalahari could have easily devolved into a camp maelstrom that would have been perfect fodder for the smart alecks at MST3K. This is a film with a lot of potential pitfalls, but one which rather miraculously manages to evade just about all of them. Unfailingly exciting and rather incredibly well paced, Sands of the Kalahari is one of those rare exceptions that may in fact be just as “outstanding” as people remember a film they saw in their childhoods being.

Sands of the Kalahari Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sands of the Kalahari is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The good news is Olive doesn't radically scrub these releases to within an inch of their lives, but the bad news is, no apparent restoration of any kind is embarked upon either. Kalahari was mastered from what Olive's press release states was an archival print, and that print is in mostly very good shape. Occasional slight blemishes and white specks pop up, but they're extremely transitory. This boasts a nominally sharper image than Olive's Crack in the World, but Kalahari still suffers from slight softness in its wider shots. Colors look suitably robust and accurate and fine detail in close-ups is very good to excellent. Contrast and black levels are both solid throughout the feature. There's some minimal but still noticeable edge enhancement and haloing in several shots, especially when we're offered sights of the dunes meeting the horizon with backlit sun.

Sands of the Kalahari Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sands of the Kalahari is presented with a lossless LPCM mono track that sounds fairly spry for its age, especially with regard to the rousing score by jazz legend John Dankworth (late husband of the fantastic singer Cleo Laine). While this film probably would have benefited from a repurposed 5.1 track, what's here sounds fine, with very good fidelity and a decent if not overwhelming reproduction throughout all frequency ranges. The soundtrack does suffer from a certain narrow, boxy sound which is no doubt endemic to the original stems. But dialogue is clean and clearly heard, and the mix between the dialogue, score and ambient environmental sound effects is well handled.

Sands of the Kalahari Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray.

Sands of the Kalahari Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sands of the Kalahari is inarguably old fashioned, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. While the film starts out like a standard cookie cutter survival epic, it manages to delve into some kind of shockingly dark and twisted subject matter that is certainly unusual for a film of its era. Benefiting immensely from a really stunning use of location photography, and featuring some fine, unusually nuanced performances from its smallish cast, Sands of the Kalahari may in fact be generic at its core, but that core is decorated with so many unusual elements that the stereotypes tend to fade away like bleached bones in the desert sun. Dramatic, exciting and with one of the most viscerally unforgettable endings in mid-1960's film, Sands of the Kalahari is a fascinating film that deserves a new audience which hopefully this Blu-ray can help to provide. Highly recommended.