Khartoum
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Movie Reviews of Khartoum
Movie Review: An epic entertainment!
Summary: 4 Stars
Heston essays one of his best roles as Charles "Chinese" Gordon, the patriot who thrives on challenge... Gordon becomes a national hero for his exploits in China and his ill-fated defense of Khartoum...
Gordon is a Christian with the Bible constantly under his arm... A national hero who abolished slavery in China... An honest man revered by the British, as well as by the foreigners... A martyr-warrior who ever truly loves the Sudan and cannot, under 'his' God, leave it to the misery and the sickness of which he once cured it...
Gladstone ((Ralph Richardson) decides not to send troops to the trouble area... Instead he will send General Gordon... Gladstone realizes if Gordon is sent to Khartoum and fails to prevent a massacre, it is he who will be blamed; not the Briish government... For heroes are supposed to perform miracles...
En route to Khartoum, Gordon discovers that most of Britain's allies and friends of his former exploits now support the mystic Mahdi... But when Gordon with Col. Stewart (Richard Johnson) finally reach Khartoum, the people give him a warm welcome... They feel their problems must soon be over now that Gordon Pasha has arrived...
Things, however, do not go as planned... Khartoum runs out of food... The Mahdi's men infiltrate the city... And Gordon seek a plan...
Lawrence Olivier is superb as the fanatical Arab leader, Muhammed Ahmed Al Mahdi, the Expected-One... His softly glowing black eyes never blink... His measured voice spreads holy terrors: "I have been instructed by the Lord Mohammed, Peace be upon Him, to worship in the Khartoum mosque. Therefore I must take Khartoum by the sword."
With outstanding color photography, exquisite sets and costumes, "Khartoum" has great moments:
- The bloody and brutal massacre of an entire army in a burning desert...
- The Gordon/Mahdi meeting... The only non-historic element of the film which, in fact, never took place - contributes enormously to the dramatic effect of the motion picture.
- The raid on the Mahdi's own supplies...
- The exodus of all foreigners and Europeans out of the city...
With an Oscar-Nominated script mounted on a grand scale, "Khartoum" is an epic entertainment, a fine and powerful motion picture...
The exploits, the single-handed capacity Gordon Pasha displayed again and again to control large groups of people quite unarmed and alone, is almost magical; quite scary, in fact...
Movie Review: An epic of the desert
Summary: 4 Stars
Say what you will about Charlton Heston, the man was one of the greats when it came to portraying larger-than-life characters, and Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon (an actual historical personage) was a fine choice for him to make. In 1884, Victorian England is stunned to learn of the massacre of an army of Egyptians (officered by Britishers) in the Sudan, whither it had pursued the army of Muhammad Ahmad, the Mahdi (Sir Laurence Olivier), believed by his followers to be the long-awaited redeemer who would unite all of Islam under his banner, bring justice and fairness to the world, and usher in the Day of Jugment. Prime Minister William Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) is determined not to commit his country to any "adventure" in Central Africa, yet Egypt is an ally-state of Britain's, and her upcountry walled city of Khartoum is now threatened by the Mahdi's army. Eventually he decides that the best thing he can do is send someone to oversee the city's evacuation, and chooses Gordon because he knows that country well, having stamped out the slave trade there years earlier. Gordon for his part realizes he's likely to be something of a sacrificial goat, but he takes the job anyway, and the movie follows his efforts to save the people of Khartoum and somehow blackmail his superiors into sending him support before it's too late.
Heston's Gordon is a man of rare courage and great charisma: even Gladstone's spy, Col. Stewart (Richard Johnson), becomes his devoted partisan, and the Mahdi not only respects him but repeatedly declares that Gordon "is not my enemy." The deep devotion of Gordon's Egyptian friends and even his black servant Khaleel (Johnny Sekka) adds dimension to the character, and Gordon shows he has several other sides too, as he devises defenses for the beleaguered city and even leads a raid into the hinterlands to sweep up cattle and grain on which to feed it. (Heston was even able to ride a camel, not the easiest job around.) This is an old-fashioned epic movie with a genuine "cast of thousands" and battle scenes that recapture the kind of swashbuckling style unfortunately lost to war in the past century or so, and even its tragic ending doesn't detract from its thorough enjoyability. Olivier is surprisingly effective in his Arabic role, and although there's one rather chilling scene just before the final assault, it's not so graphic that anyone should be too badly upset by it. Anyone who likes historical war movies should find this title just to his taste.
Movie Review: Almost a classic.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an excellent, thoughtful historical spectacle with two huge, charismatic stars. Seeing Mr. Heston and Lord Olivier in the same film is worth "the price of admission" in itself. When you add a compelling story, based on fact, great locations, literate script and fine production values, "Khartoum" becomes a worthy addition to your film collection.As another reviewer has noted, the basic clash/mistrust/miscommunication between Eastern and Western culture is a very old subject, and sadly just as relevant today.
There are themes and attitudes in this film--on both sides--that gave this viewer a chill in 2002.
As a movie, I gave it four stars--as a spectacle, it is not in the same league as "Lawrence of Arabia" or a couple of other Heston films, "Ben Hur" and "El Cid"--but it still has much to offer.
I liked the way it portrays politicians as devious, unscrupulous and desperate to hang on to power, no matter what the cost to human lives and suffering. Gladstone is considered by historians as one of Britain's greatest Prime Ministers--but the superb Ralph Richardson certainly shows us the man's " dark side". Are politicians any different today ? Yes--it's a rhetorical question !
Olivier is, of course, a consummate actor, and "The Mahdi" is another in a very long line of great performances. Heston, however, more than holds his own as Gordon. Charlton Heston certainly has more than his share of critics--the word "ham" is sometimes used ! Personally, I think he's a terrific actor, and--as he proved many times--one of the few that can still command your full attention when surrounded by a " cast of thousands".
I don't like his politics--but this is one of the true "giants" of movies and I was sad to hear about his health problems.
I recently read an article that made me laugh out loud--someone in Hollywood is considering a re-make of "El Cid" with Tom Cruise--sorry, Tom--there's only one El Cid !
The DVD ? Nice wide-screen transfer--beautiful colour--the sound is acceptable for a 36 year-old film. With the reasonable price, this is a good buy. Try it.
Movie Review: An epic from the True Tales of the Empire period
Summary: 4 Stars
This film had a big impact on me when I saw it as a 12 year old in 1966 at the State Wayne Theater. I am sure that I did not understand all of the political conversations, though as an adult I find them the best parts of the film. I am sure that I did not understand Gordon's motivation for going to the Sudan nor his attachment to it.
The big action scenes and particularly the famous scene of Gordon facing the mob at the end of the movie without a weapon and freezing them all in place (for a bit), always stayed with me. I liked the military considerations and was angered that the army would not get to Gordon in time.
There were any number of big movies made from tales of the British Empire. Lots of pageantry, color, war, and heroism that is bigger than life. While there are obvious things to criticize in a film that is nearly forty years old (the flooding of the protective moat is particularly obvious to today's eyes and probably were in 1966), I prefer to look at the things that work. Heston does pull off the strange charisma of Gordon, Richard Johnson is fabulous as Col. Stewart, Olivier does a characterization of the Mahdi that would not be acceptable today, but provides a clear villain for this 60s film. Ralph Ricahrdson, one of the great actors of all time, does a superb job as Gladstone and Johny Sekka was wonderful and memorable as the wise, brave, and witty Khaleel.
This is not a great film, but a pretty sound depiction of historical events that we would be better off retaining in our memories. Gordon dies, and so did the Mahdi a few months later, but Gordon was a strange and amazing man as was the Mahdi. It is a strange twist of history that brought them on a collision course. Kitchener went back to the Sudan and conquered Khartoum a couple of decades later and rebuilt it as Gordon had done earlier.
When people only criticize the British Empire they should remember the suffering and misery it tried to alleviate in places like the Sudan and balance that with perceived acts of less nobility.
Movie Review: SPRAWLING EPIC, DESERT DRY BUT NEAR PRISTINE ON DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of those big budget, sprawling epic motion pictures that Hollywood used to turn out en masse during the days when television was still seen as a major threat to the film industry. It stars Charlton Heston as a British general, determined to wade out and win a holy war launched against an Arab exptremist played by Sir Lawrence Olivier. The problem is that the film suffers from Olivier's performance. No matter how hard he tries, it's just Olivier in dark pancake make-up and not the Arabian savior that we see. This role would have been so much better served by Alec Guiness or Omar Shariff. As it stands the action is pretty subdued. There are a couple of enthralling battle scenes that really set the screen on fire and a really creepy face to face controntation between the two leads near the end. Ralph Richardson co-stars.MGM has given us the film in a pretty smart looking transfer. Colors are rich and bold. There is no smearing or bleeding. Most scenes exhibit a nice sharp clarity and depth that I wouldn't have expected from a film this old, especially since no restoration work was done on the film negative. The desert scenes exhibit a spectrum of sandy, earthy colors that are impressively captured. There is some minor edge enhancement present, most notably in the latter half of the film, as well as some minor pixelization that breaks apart fine detail in some of the background information. A minimal amount of dirt, scratches and fading is detected but nothing that will distract. The sound is equally impressive for its age and is presented in 2.0 stereo, with a really nice spread, especially in the music tracks. NO EXTRAS!
BOTTOM LINE: If you like epics, this one is for you. Just keep in mind, it's NO "Lawrence of Arabia".