The film industry has always had an obsession with the concept of spectacles – there is nothing quite as entertaining as a well-made, big-budget blockbuster, and while they have mostly defaulted to genres such as science fiction and superhero stories in recent years, there was a time when the biggest source of inspiration for these filmmakers was quite simply the past. There are many fascinating moments in history that have been the foundation for brilliant films – and on occasion, we’d find works that seem to be based in reality (by virtue of familiar settings and a sense of realism that indicates that they could have plausibly taken place), but are obviously constructions, which is an interesting approach and one that reaps tremendous results when done right. Looking at Escape from Zahrain, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a retelling of a real event, and more than one viewer has scrambled to an atlas to determine where exactly Zahrain sits in the Arab Peninsula, only to realize that it is all manufactured for the sake of this film. Based on the novel Appointment in Zahrain by Michael Barrett, the film tells the daring story of a motley crew of revolutionaries that hijack an ambulance and make their way out of the country, in the hopes of helping their leader escape. Amongst them is this revolutionary leader who has been sentenced to death, only to be saved by a set of students who believe genuinely in his cause, to the point where they risk their entire lives to save him, as well as an American oil worker imprisoned for embezzlement, and a nurse that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is forced into their crew, eventually becoming one of their most steadfast allies in their race to the border. It’s a thrilling, captivating and oddly very funny film in which director Ronald Neame takes this text, and working closely with screenwriter Robin Estridge, crafts a solid, action-packed thriller that offers us the feeling of exhilarating adventure that we all sometimes seek from these films, even if they do stretch the limits of reality to suit a particular agenda.

Context is always important with any film, especially those produced at a very specific time in global history. The 1960s were a time when nearly every film, novel and even song could be argued to contain some sense of political or socio-cultural importance, even if only accidentally or given that meaning by tenuous over-analysis. However, it seems logical to assume that every work that used history or current affairs as a theme would be inherently political, inspired by the direction in which the world was going at the time. Naturally, we tend to assert more relevance on stories about the direct conflict between the western world and the Soviet Union, which normally entailed a clear rivalry between the two – however, the Cold War was as much about the proxy wars that happened alongside it as it did the bigger conflicts that existed between these two superpowers. The Middle East played a substantial role in the conflict as well, although not to the extent where the impact was immediately obvious (films set in this region, or which use it as a narrative motif are much more modern, since it has become more prescient in recent decades to examine the tensions between the Middle East and other regions and their people – but that’s a discussion for another time), which makes Escape from Zahrain an oddly intriguing film, since it is offering something we had yet to see in such vivid detail. The reason for creating an entirely new country can only be answered by the author of the original text, but the most likely justification would be to allow for a story that is not too heavily reliant on real-world events, and instead exists in its own political and social ecosystem, which Barrett (and then later Neame in the film adaptation) were able to manipulate without needing to do copious amounts of research to make sure the narrative fits into reality. Instead, the story exists alongside history, rather than being a part of it, drawing correlations from real events without actively being about them. It’s part of a wave of stories that prioritize the concept of revisionist history, which was at its absolute peak during this period, carefully crafted works by dedicated storytellers that draw on the past in order to evoke creative depictions of reality, or fictional scenarios that it inspired.

One aspect of Hollywood that has never changed is that once they discover someone who is particularly adept at a particular niche or possesses a specific talent that is rare to find, they will make sure they work that individual to the point of exhaustion, or putting them in a position where they will only be known for playing one kind of role. For Yul Brynner, his unique appearance that suggested an indeterminate origin meant that most of his career was spent playing characters from a range of different backgrounds, whether from the furthest corners of East Asia to the plains of the Old West – and while this kind of casting would be appropriately met with scorn today, it was a feasible career path for an actor who was never going to be a traditional leading man, which ultimately resulted in his transformation into a truly chameleonic performer. Escape from Zahrain sees him add another ethnicity to his roster, playing an Arab revolutionary leader who is sentenced to death, but is rescued at the last minute by a group of militant students that idolize him and hope to help him escape from the country so that he can find sanctuary elsewhere. Brynner was always very good, even when he wasn’t doing anything particularly impressive – his extraordinary ability to emote, as well as his skillfulness in making every one of his characters interesting, was one of his greatest assets, and his journey as an actor was all about finding nuances in the characters he played, especially since they didn’t offer him too much to work with on their own. He is joined by the ever-reliable Jack Warden (the only person in this film playing someone of their own ethnic group) and Sal Mineo, making yet another claim at being the next major star, only to turn in a solid but unremarkable performance that is overshadowed by nearly everyone else, proving that Mineo’s talents were better suited for more interesting, character-based parts, rather than valiant heroism, since it just wasn’t his style as an actor. The cast of Escape from Zahrain are all very good, if not following routine to the extent where these are the definition of by-the-numbers performances – but considering everything about this film tends to follow a strict formula, we can’t fault the performances for being very conventional, since they’re still extremely strong, just within the expected boundaries.

Both narratively and stylistically, Escape from Zahrain is about as conventional as an action-adventure film produced during this time could be, with Neame being the kind of director who has a strong authorial vision, but who also understands the importance of allowing the material to speak for itself, as well as pitching the direction at the appropriate level. Throughout this film, we find many intriguing flourishes, but these exist to supplement the very direct and forthright sense of convention that drives the film. Reliability is a good commodity for a film such as this, since audiences need to know what to expect, and the original novel already skirts around the edges of being pulp fiction, functioning as one of those very entertaining but ultimately not terribly deep narratives that take place in distant lands (in this case one that is entirely fictional), and exist primarily to be enjoyable, rather than thought-provoking. This is important to the overall experience of this film, since we shouldn’t expect a subversive or challenging work, but rather appreciate this film for what it is, which is a solid, consistent and very enjoyable 90 minutes of action-packed filmmaking. However, this doesn’t preclude the film from being exceptionally well-made, with the gorgeous cinematography by Ellsworth Fredricks capturing both the striking on-location setting, as well as the constructed sets on which a decent portion of the film was shot, with his photography making them appear seamless, to the point where we actually struggle to distinguish between the sets and the Mojave Desert, which doubled as the expansive desert wasteland of Zahrain. It’s a strikingly beautiful film, and the fact that Neame leans into the simplicity (when he could have feasibly made it even more of a spectacle) is certainly admirable, and helps redirect our attention to the aspects of the film that matter the most, namely the story and context, which are the driving force behind this narrative, which is only enriched by the solid, meaningful visual landscape created by the director and his marvellously dedicated crew, who are tasked with bringing life to a fictional country, and do exceptionally well.

At a rapid-fire 93 minutes, Escape from Zahrain is an oddity of a film on a purely conceptual level – considering this was an era where historical epics and action films could genuinely demand running times of longer than two or three hours, it’s a miracle that Neame managed to not only tell this story in a compact amount of time, but do so in a way where it feels like nothing was left out, resolving every single plot point and still having room for a few peripheral ideas that enrich the overall experience of the film. Neame was a director with a clear vision with each and every one of his films – he may be viewed amongst the more notable journeyman directors of his era (but who actually had a surprisingly strong voice, especially later on in his career), but he proved himself on countless occasions, making it clear that he had a very strong vision, and the foresight to ensure that everything he did had substance and value, perhaps even to the point where many of his works were amongst the best of their respective years. Escape from Zahrain is inarguably slightly more anonymous in its direction, since most of the work was done by the design team, with Neame’s main responsibility being to make sure that everything fits in the frame – but even with such constrictions, he makes a very effective film, a simple but fascinating action drama with a good concept that may be a flimsy substitute for real-world commentary, but which is still intriguing enough to hold our attention. There isn’t room for too much pondering in this film, and from the start it employs a very clear direction on where it intended to go, achieving it almost immediately. It’s a well-crafted, beautifully-made film that isn’t always consistent in how it tackles certain issues, but still offers us everything that a story of this calibre required to be effective, which all comes together to form a fascinating and invigorating adventure film that is far more entertaining than we expected it to be at a cursory glance.