Khartoum

The pairing of Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier is fabulous, and their scenes together are riveting. Heston is gaunt in this film, to closer portray the slightly built Gordon, and speaks with a subtle but excellent English accent; Olivier is the fanatic who calls himself The Mahdi ("The Expected One"), waging a holy war with his followers to destroy anyone who opposes his beliefs, with the aim of conquering the world for his fundamentalist faith.
Other wonderful performances come from Richard Johnson as Col. Stewart, Ralph Richardson as Prime Minister Gladstone, Nigel Green as Gen Wolseley, and Johnny Sekka is a delight as Gordon's servant Khaleel.

After British-led Egyptian forces are massacred by The Mahdi's insurgents, the British government asks Egypt to give up the Sudan, and General Gordon is called to evacuate the European and Egyptian civilians from the Sudan; he stays to ward off the terrorists and the siege of Khartoum takes place.
The sweeping panoramas of the desert and the Nile river are sumptuous (cinematography by Edward Scaife), and the Frank Cordell score is terrific, though it owes a bit to Maurice Jarre's music for "Lawrence of Arabia"; released 6 years earlier, "Lawrence" has some comparisons to this film, as they are both about adventurous men of courage who felt comfortable in Arab lands.
This film sparked my imagination and made me want to know more about Gordon's fascinating life and the history that surrounded him, and it is one I could watch repeatedly. Total running time is 134 minutes.
"...but there is this: A world with no room for the Gordons, is a world that will return to the sands".


Epic Action Film From a Lost Age   May 4, 2003
Maximillian Ben Hanan (Sacramento, California, USA)
35 out of 53 found this review helpful

Khartoum is both an African city and the name for some colorful 1884 North African history: the rise of a Messiah-like figure named "Mahdi" among the Muslims of present-day Sudan, the return of a noble general, Charles "Chinese" Gordon, who vanquished slavery in the area, and a tragic fight between the Mahdi and the noble general.

That being said, the film works somewhat well as an action vehicle, but most of the more colorful events from the actual history are glossed over or not well portrayed. I found Laurence Olivier's portrayal of the Mahdi to be very weak with every kind of Muslim stereotype presented as well as some real kitschy overacting. Laurence Olivier simply doesn't pass as a radical Muslim leader. Charlton Heston should never EVER try to do accents again! His British accent more than flopped; it plummeted. The majority of the film suffers from overacting or just plain poor acting. What may have been billed as an Oscar-nominated screenplay in 1966 wouldn't fly today in 2003.

The film's 134 minutes are not well arranged. The film suffers from numerous slow moments and the musical accompaniment is sleep inducing. Both my roommate and I snoozed while trying to watch this film. Some of the cinematography is breathtaking, but nowhere near the level of "Lawrence of Arabia." At any rate, even a little bit of good cinematography can't save this weak film.

I'm giving this film three stars because it does a mediocre but passable job of being an action film. "Zulu" would be a much better film if you would like to watch British soldiers face off against native hordes. Then again, Charlton Heston's wooden acting might make this a camp film classic such as Heston being struck by a spear and slowly falling off a wall was pure cheese. Who knows?

I don't recommend this film.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan


Classic inspirational story, classic film, but do read the history too   October 9, 2005
R. ARANT (Lanesville, Indiana USA)
35 out of 41 found this review helpful

This is a wonderful story and a riveting film, as the other reviewers have noted. This DVD version is crisp and clear, well done. The final narrator comment is on the mark -- A world in which there is no room for Gordons is doomed to turn to sand.

If you would like to learn in exquisite detail what the Mahdi was truly like, his background, the games he played interposing himself between God and man, his private vices versus public face of holiness, the extent of his crimes against duped humanity, how he died [the narrator fo the film says we will never know, but Rudolph Slatin reported the cause of death more than 100 years ago], then by all means read "Fire and Sword in the Sudan," written by Colonel Sir Rudolph Slatin Pasha, an Austrian officer held captive inside the inner circles of both the Mahdi and his successor the Khalifa Abdullahi for twelve agonizing years. General Gordon's severed head was brought to Slatin in prison before it was taken as prize to the Mahdi. Slatin, an expert linguist and accomplished field commander, was appointed by Gordon as governor of Darfur and led troops in the field against rebels for one year after being cut off from all contact with his government. He played convert to Islam as a strategy to inspire his troops and to stay alive as a personal slave to the Mahdi and the Khalifa, biding his time until he could make good his escape. Slatin's story is at least as inspiring as the life of the legendary General Gordon. Several anecdotes Slatin reveals about Gordon give a special insight into the kind nature of the great but human general.

My only complaint about "Khartoum" -- The movie was grossly slanderous toward General Hicks, who commanded the troops massacred in the opening scene. Rediculed in the movie as a "fool," the facts show him a great hero. When questioned by one of his friends before the fatal expedition in which Hicks died and his 10,000 troops were wiped out, Hicks said, "I am as Jesus Christ in the midst of the Jews." He knew he was about to become a martyr. He and his handfull of officers all agreed their chances were bleak. Still he marched off, thinking his honor might be impugned if he refused to advance. When the Mahdi made Hicks an offer to accept his surrender with terms and passed out hundreds of handbills along the route of march documenting that offer, Hicks refused. He died to protect his honor just as Gordon later died. An officer sent to his death for nothing by ignorant politicians. Sound familiar?

Sir Winston Churchill's book "The River War" is a brilliantly told first-hand account of the retaking of the Sudan. Churchill's written description of the charge of the 21st Lancers is as vivid as any war scene ever filmed.

General Gordon's Khartoum Journals are also available in several different printings.

"Khartoum" will open an entirely new world to those interested enough to study the history. Those were days when 3,000 men could be killed in one twenty minute clash by spear and sword, rifle and pistol. The scenes of bravery on a large scale are like nothing we could imagine today. Many of us tend to panic at the scale of human life taken in today's war on terror. We forget the huge scale of the battles our ancestors fought before the dawn of the age of modern weaponry and terrorist attacks. We underestimate the ability of a strong society to absorb incredible blows in battle, and risk joining the ranks of the terrorized and self-defeated. Abraham Lincoln once wrote that if this great nation is to ever die, it will be by suicide, not at the hands of foreign armies incapable of stealing a single drink from the Ohio river.


Messianic Struggle.   September 12, 2001
Robert S. Clay Jr. (St. Louis, MO., USA)
26 out of 30 found this review helpful

Laurence Olivier and Charlton Heston star in a colorful historical drama that details the fall of Khartoum in 1885. In the mid-'60s, the film industry was winding down its interest in portraying historical spectacles on the big screen. A late entry in this cycle is this intelligent British film. Heston plays the Victorian hero "Chinese" Gordon, who viewed himself as the deliverer of the Sudan. Previously, Gordon had ended slavery in the region, and he feels connected to his loyal minions. Olivier is equally messianic as The Mahdi, the spiritual leader of hordes of Moslem warriors. God has commanded The Mahdi, he says, to worship in mosques as far afield as Constantinople. His war in the Sudan is a mere prelude to greater conquests. The conflict is essentially between two fanatic men. One inspired by faith, the other by ego. The immediate cause of conflict is the city of Khartoum. Besides indigenous people, the city is populated by Egyptians and Europeans. For political reasons, Gordon goes to the Sudan to sort it all out, and evacuate the non-native inhabitants. All the while preserving British dignity without entangling Her Majesty's government. Heston does well as the proud Gordon. Olivier seems amused by his role. Their scenes together are among the high points of the film, but they also stretch historical credibility. Ralph Richardson is good as British P. M. Gladstone, resisting Gordon's attempts to expand the British role in the Sudan. The large-scale battle scenes will please action-adventure fans. The director does an effective job of capturing the Victorian atmosphere of England in the 1880s. Location filming in Egypt and along the Nile enhances authenticity. An interesting sub-theme is the folly of foreign adventure, ironic for a film produced in the early Vietnam era. Recommended viewing. ;-)