Main Cast: Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, Ralph Richardson, Alexander Knox
Release Year: 1966
Country: UK
Run Time: 134 minutes
Plot
After declaring a holy war to rid the Sudan of Anglo-Egyptian rule in the 1880s, the fanatical Sudanese leader Muhammad Ahmad (Laurence Olivier) massacres a British-led force of 8,000 and marches on the strategic city of Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The British government of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) then sends one of its greatest generals, Charles George Gordon (Charlton Heston), to Khartoum to make peace and save the city. Gordon had previously served with distinction in the Crimea, China, India and South Africa. Most important, he had also served as governor of the Sudan in the late 1870s at the request of the khedive of Egypt, instituting administrative reforms, reducing the slave trade and bolstering the economy. However, before Gordon reaches Khartoum with his aide, many of his former Sudanese friends defect to the Mahdi. Nevertheless, Gordon receives a rousing reception when he arrives in the city in February 1884. Heartened, he meets in the desert with the Mahdi to try to forge a peace agreement, but the Arab leader tells Gordon he is bent on taking Khartoum. What's more, he means to conquer other cities -- Cairo, Mecca, Baghdad and Constantinople -- to establish a vast empire under his leadership. Convinced that more war is inevitable, Gordon and the loyal Egyptian troops under his command prepare for battle. Meanwhile, in London, the Gladstone government is reluctant to dispatch troops to support the outnumbered Khartoum forces because colonial meddling has become bad politics. To forestall disaster, Gordon diverts the Nile to create a moat around Khartoum and leads a foray in which he steals cattle from the Mahdi's herd to supply the besieged city with food. But when the Nile recedes, the stage is set for the final battle that will decide the fate of Khartoum. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Review
This film's scenario is an old one: Dig in. Take aim. Then fight to the last gasp. But director Basil Deardon's Khartoum executes the scenario on a grand scale. Set mainly in and near the Sudanese city of Khartoum between 1884 and 1885, it features massing armies, booming canons, and a desert landscape alternately beautiful and brutal. Both Charleston Heston as Gordon and Laurence Olivier as Ahmad are in top form as they define the central conflicts: Gordon's ego vs Ahmad's ego, the Christian God vs the Muslim God, and Sudanese rule vs Anglo-Egyptian rule. A memorable scene in the film is a confrontation between Heston and Olivier in the Mahdi's tent. There, they clash verbally as Olivier reveals his plan to take not only Khartoum, but also Cairo, Mecca, Baghdad and Constantinople. Although both actors infuse their characters with unyielding resolve, Olivier is the more overtly fanatical and menacing, but Heston, for his part, refuses to cower, and his always imposing film presence serves him well in presenting Gordon as larger-than-life visionary. Some reviewers, however, criticized the film for both Olivier's use of blackface make-up and for being a bit "talky." If good writing, acting and pacing constitute talkiness, then the film is indeed guilty of that offense. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
John Howell - Art Director, John McCorry - Costume Designer, Basil Dearden - Director, Fergus McDonell - Editor, Frank Cordell - Composer (Music Score), Frank Cordell - Musical Direction/Supervision, John Stoll - Production Designer, Edward Scaife - Cinematographer, Harry Waxman - Cinematographer, Julian Blaustein - Producer, Pamela Cornell - Set Designer, John Bodimeade - Set Designer, Richard Parker - Special Effects, Robert Ardrey - Screenwriter
In 1883 Sudan, a large, poorly-trained Egyptian force under the command of British Colonel William Hicks (Edward Underdown) is lured into the desert and slaughtered by Muslim zealots led by the Muhammad Ahmad, a fanatic who believes he is the Mahdi, the prophesied "expected one of Mohammed". Prime MinisterWilliam Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) is under great pressure to send military hero General Charles Gordon to Khartoum to salvage the situation and restore British prestige. Gordon has strong ties to Sudan, having broken the slave trade in the past, but Gladstone distrusts him. The man has a reputation for strong, if eccentric, religious beliefs and following his own judgment, regardless of his orders. However, Gladstone has little choice; the public and Queen Victoria are strong supporters of the idea.
Gordon is told that his mission, to evacuate troops and civilians, is unsanctioned by the British government, which will disavow all responsibility if he fails. He is given few resources and only a single aide, Colonel J. D. H. Stewart (Richard Johnson). After an attempt to recruit former slaver Zobeir Pasha (Zia Mohyeddin) fails, Gordon and Stewart travel to Khartoum, where Gordon is hailed as the city's savior. He begins organizing the defences and rallying the people, despite Stewart's protests that this is not what he was sent to do.
In Britain, Gladstone, apprised how desperate the situation has become, orders Gordon to leave, but, as he had feared, his command is ignored. A public outcry forces Gladstone to send a relief force, but he sees to it that there is no urgency, hoping to the last that Gordon will come to his senses and save himself.
Gordon had diverted the Nile River to provide a protective moat. When the waters recede, his small army is finally overwhelmed by 100,000 Arabs. The city falls, and Gordon is killed, though the Mahdi had forbidden it. (Before the siege, Gordon had fearlessly gone, accompanied only by a single servant, to parlay with the Mahdi at his camp, gaining the latter's respect.)
A narrator (Leo Genn) notes that the relief column arrived two days too late.
Historical notes
The film is about the last months before the British lost their emplacement in Sudan - in theory a subject territory of Egypt - in January 1885. Britain had occupied, but did not formally annex, Egypt in 1883. This is why Gordon, who is technically the "Egyptian" governor of the Sudan, wears a red Egyptian fez.
The political origins of the Khartoum affair are unclear. The film postulates a meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone (correctly shown wearing a finger-stall to cover a finger lost in a shooting accident as a young man), and other officials, which Gladstone ends by declaring never to have taken place.
The meeting between Gordon and the Mahdi in the Mahdist camp, as portrayed in the film, is entirely fictional.
The final shot of Gordon descending a staircase before being speared to death, is based on a famous painting.
Major Kitchener (Peter Arne), who played a role in Gen. Wolseley's (Nigel Green) relief expedition, was himself later a famous general and commanded the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan in 1898. He was known thereafter as Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.
