Caravans

A mammoth flop even in its day, Caravans (1978) hasn't aged well. This expansive adaptation of James Michener's potboiler novel is beautifully shot, but its story, characters and staging amount to a mountain of cliches.

1948 in a fictitious Central Asian country. American diplomat Mark Miller (Michael Sarrazin) is assigned to locate Ellen Jasper (Jennifer O'Neill), daughter of a Senator who's married local leader Nasrullah (Behrouz Vossoughi). Miller discovers that Ellen's left her husband, instead running away with tribesman Zullfiqar (who else but Anthony Quinn?). Zullfiqar's nomadic tribes resist Nasrullah's edict to settle on a reservation while trading in Russian rifles. Even as Miller gains Zullfiqar's trust and Ellen's affection, a showdown with Nasrullah's forces becomes inevitable.

Caravans is a very expensive show, filmed in Iran right before the Shah's downfall. Director James Fargo provides handsome vistas and cast of hundreds crowds, staging the requisite set piece: a trek through a monsoon, the climactic battle in an abandoned village. It's all accompanied by Mike Batt's robust score. Unfortunately, it's all surface gloss. Where a smart adventure like The Wind and the Lion comments pointedly on American-Middle East relations, Caravans deals exclusively in hoary Orientalism: jabbering crowds, decadent satraps, salt-of-the-earth bandits.

Nor does Caravans score any originality points, playing as a Persian riff on The Searchers mixed with '30s adventure movies. Zullfiqar acts like Sean Connery's Raisuli, inflicting barbaric punishments while lamenting Nasrullah's repressive government. Ellen's a liberated "modern woman" who incongruously chooses to live in a society where women are chattel. Worse still are the endless scenes of wizened locals explaining tribal customs to the gawking Americans. This isn't exactly boring, and Fargo adds some strange touches: you won't see many epics where public urination quells a riot. But Caravans' main hallmark is laziness.

Possibly Hollywood's most typecast actor, Anthony Quinn nonetheless remains likeable in his 500th iteration of the earthy ethnic. He's certainly livelier than Michael Sarrazin and Jennifer O'Neill (Rio Lobo), who act like gormless tourists. Christopher Lee plays yet another avuncular villain, while Iranian star Behrouz Vossoughi gives a surprisingly rounded performance. Joseph Cotten appears fleetingly as an Ambassador; Jeremy Kemp (Operation Crossbow) and Barry Sullivan (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) assay minor roles.

Caravans is passable pablum lacking invention or wit. There's potential in the story - say, the clash between Islamic modernity and tradition - that the movie scarcely has the wit to realize. But if you've never seen Anthony Quinn play a grizzled desert warlord, then you may find it strikingly original.