I first saw this story of culture clash at an early age. Back then I understood it as a tale of desert survival. As I get older, I realize more and more that it is a film about what gets lost in the drive towards modernization. While a lot of the "symbollism" is quite obvious and overblown, and the use of zoom is almost laughably dated, the film is on the whole so quiet and contemplative that it has survived its datedness to be one of my all time favorite films. It is one of the rare films that gets more interesting each time I rewatch it.