"Desert Warrior": Just Watch It

When a tyrannical emperor(Ben Kingsley) executes her father, an exiled princess(Aisha Hart) rallies rival tribes to fight for their freedom.

Unfortunately, Desert Warrior is another example of inaccurate marketing that sabotages a great film. With trailers that featured Anthony Mackie, we half-expected to see “Captain America:The Desert Avenger”. Be aware, Mackie is not the designated protagonist. He is barely in the movie at all. He usually drops in just to grunt a few lines in a pretty decent Arabian accent then disappears for 20 minutes.

Although his performance does bookend the movie, it’s not enough for him to be recognized as the “desert warrior”. It’s only by the end of the movie do we realize that Hind(Aisha Hart) is the titular character and the heroine we should be cheering on.

Audiences are treated to an international film with a Princess of Mars feel. It’s not a sentimental, romanticized, hero movie with a Caucasian protagonist. Most of the cast were of Middle Eastern descent, with cultural sensibilities from that region. There were plenty of swords and galloping horses but also a few camels. The battles were realistic but not gory. They would cut away just before the blood splatters which was an interesting technique further identifying it as a film meant for an audience not accustomed to gratuitous violence.

Unlike most damsel-in-distress movies, Princess Hind dons her fightin’ clothes and leads the newly formed army into battle. She doesn’t sit in a castle waiting to see who wins and no one seems to have a problem with that. Massively cool.

Sharlto Copley plays the brutal villain, Jalabzeen. He has a funky accent I really couldn’t place. Clearly being Caucasian, I didn’t understand how he and others came to be in Arabia. That would be my only significant criticism of the plot. It was also unfortunate that the powers-that-be made him wear mascara which is a typical practice in Hollywood dating back to the 1950’s to make Caucasian actors look Middle Eastern. 

I hesitate to really dig in simply because it’s not what we are used to seeing. Western movies tend to have copious amounts of dialogue with the characters telling every thought and feeling leading them into their actions. I got the sense that Desert Warrior was intentionally written in a particular style. It relied heavily on visual storytelling, not being too literal. Following the adage, “show, don’t tell”. Besides, the dialogue was hard to understand at times. Halfway through I just kept the captions on.

Don’t pay attention to the bad reviews or the low box office tally. Be open to another form of storytelling and just watch it.