Khartoum

I love a great big Hollywood Epic. After the success of 'Lawrence of Arabia' the story of Charles Gordon and Khartoum became a no-brainer. Like Lawrence, Gordon was a British soldier and adventurer who was more about his legend than anything he actually accomplished. But such is the way of great men who have to live with what others expect of him as much as he lives with what he expects of himself.

In 1883, a contingent of British and Egyptians soldiers led by British Colonel William Hicks were slaughters by Muhammad Ahmad, a Muslim who believed himself to be the 'chosen one' of Muhammad or 'Mahdi'. He believed he was destined to rid the entire Middle East of any and all 'infidels'.


This embarrassing defeat forced the British to send in Charles Gordon into the area. He had a reputation in the Sudan for defeating the slave trade and in China for restoring the Emperor to his throne. However, he also had a reputation for doing things his way and the political situation was a delicate one. The British people had little patience for 'adventuring' and making foreign wars much the same way the American people feel about their fighting in the Middle East.

(popular print showing death of Gordon)
The movie concerns the efforts both politically and within the capital of Khartoum that Gordon made to prevent the city from falling to the Mahdi and his army. Everyone knew that the Mahdi would slaughter any and all he found within the city. He had a holy command to do so.


Charlton Heston was a great choice to play Gordon. He is great in big films about larger than life characters. You don't want someone who doesn't understand that movies like this require someone who can eat the scenery for lunch and eat it Heston does - with relish.

Lawrence Olivier plays the Mahdi and he is perfectly fine in the role. The only thing I found objectionable in the whole movie was the choice of using dark makeup on the main Arab characters who were obviously not Arabian by birth. It's almost like 'black face' and is insulting by modern standards. Surely for the so few speaking roles of native Sudanese in the movie, they could have resisted any star power someone like Olivier may have brought to the picture. This was 1966 after all.

The film is also worth seeing for some great battle scenes and beautiful cinematography. It won the Academy Award for best screenplay. This film was one that I missed ever seeing and I enjoyed it very much.