While trekking through the desert with his wife Kay and their guide Richard Damien falls off a cliff injuring himself . Lying in a gully his wife and the guide promise to get help but unknown to Richard Kay and the guide are having an affair and decide to let him lie to die
The idea behind this is a sound one . It's similar to a lot of films you've seen before where an unfaithful spouse eyes an opportunity to cash in on fate when it arises , pocket an inheritance and have raw lust filled sex with a younger partner , so much so you end up hating the villainess and her toyboy not because they're the baddies but simply because no one deserves to be that lucky
In it's favour the protagonist/victim Richard Damien is shown to be an arrogant angry middle man and isn't typical victim material , he's all man who makes John Wayne look effete and his single bloody mindedness is totally convincing . He might be driven by hate and revenge but hatred is a great motivator whether you're lost in the desert or simply struggling in day to day life
What the story doesn't do so well is construct a time frame . For instance you've got a problem understanding how long Richard is lost for . He grows stubble in a manner that suggests he's been in the desert for at least a week but as every schoolboy will tell you you'd only survive three or four days without water and probably slightly less if you're out in a blazing desert . Richard does manage to find a cactus but by the length of his stubble you're still left with the impression he's been in the desert to long to survive and has made his water last him an implausibly long time . This lack of internal continuity let's the story down a great deal . Okay it's only a TVM and does deserve some faint praise for being slightly more ambitious than you'd expect but lacks a little something to make it classic TVM material
The idea behind this is a sound one . It's similar to a lot of films you've seen before where an unfaithful spouse eyes an opportunity to cash in on fate when it arises , pocket an inheritance and have raw lust filled sex with a younger partner , so much so you end up hating the villainess and her toyboy not because they're the baddies but simply because no one deserves to be that lucky
In it's favour the protagonist/victim Richard Damien is shown to be an arrogant angry middle man and isn't typical victim material , he's all man who makes John Wayne look effete and his single bloody mindedness is totally convincing . He might be driven by hate and revenge but hatred is a great motivator whether you're lost in the desert or simply struggling in day to day life
What the story doesn't do so well is construct a time frame . For instance you've got a problem understanding how long Richard is lost for . He grows stubble in a manner that suggests he's been in the desert for at least a week but as every schoolboy will tell you you'd only survive three or four days without water and probably slightly less if you're out in a blazing desert . Richard does manage to find a cactus but by the length of his stubble you're still left with the impression he's been in the desert to long to survive and has made his water last him an implausibly long time . This lack of internal continuity let's the story down a great deal . Okay it's only a TVM and does deserve some faint praise for being slightly more ambitious than you'd expect but lacks a little something to make it classic TVM material