Allow me to start by saying, my wife is a runner. My wife is a great runner. She just finished a half marathon and is hooked. She's now so into running that's its gone all the way to watching running movies. While I exercise I am not a "runner" thus I was fully skeptical going into watching this movie that it would be completely boring and uninteresting...I was wrong.
Running for the Sahara chronicles three men's journey across the Sahara desert from Senegal to Egypt. Understandably, these guys have a team of trainers, physical therapists, and other supporters there to assist them, including a camera crew. The movie does a very nice job of telling the story while also being compelling enough, beyond just the running, to keep us interested.
The cast of characters is dynamic enough that we have a favorite, a jerk and someone that is just a decent guy. It's also nice to hear about the crews journey, because while the runners have it the hardest, it's certainly not an easy feat for the crew to spend over 100 days in the Sahara desert supporting these single track mind runners. The runners significant others are also featured in the movie and add a little romance to the story.
The score was very nice, though limited, by Hans Zimmer. There wasn't a tremendous amount of music to speak of but that's understandable since most of the storytelling is done through spoken narrative. While there is some voice over storytelling by Matt Damon it is very limited. This is one of the areas where I thought the movie could have been better.
Overall I was pretty impressed by this movie. Good story just don't expect any explosions or violence. If you're into running I would certainly check it out and even if you just want to see a story about man's strength to overcome, it's a pretty good one.
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