in 1904 tangier and a wealthy american woman and her two child be kidnap by berber and murderous desert pirate who scorn the moroccan government and and by do so and kidnap american pestilence and which attract the attention of u. s. president theodore roosevelt . fictitious historical epic be less a grand adventure than it be a peculiar and somewhat exhaustive throwback to the desert sheik film of the 1940s ( with a bit of the king and i interject and besides ) . portray the cloaked and mustachioed and bloodthirsty leader and his snippy and haughty captive and sean connery and candice bergen could be act in two entirely different movie ( neither one seem to know how far to carry the camp element of their character and dialogue and and both seem singularly without proper direction ) . the various ( and anonymous ) slashings and beheading which occur be arbitrary represent we do not know any of these victim and and the big action scenes become blurry and noisy montage of sand sweep violence on horseback . the plus represent a much laud music score by jerry goldsmith ( oscar nominate and but a loser to john williams jaw ) and fine location shooting and cinematography . half from .