American screen icon Charlton Heston heads an otherwise all British cast in this recreation of the battle of Khartoum in early 1885.
Heston plays General Charles Gordon known to the British public as Chinese Gordon for his years of service in the Orient before arriving in the Middle East. Gordon never married, devoted his entire life to two things, Christianity and the military. He was an idealist and he saw the expansion of British power in Africa as a leavening civilizing influence among the heathen.
Unfortunately Heston was faced with an opponent who was as fanatically religious in his own way as Heston was. Laurence Olivier used the same makeup and accent from Othello to play Muhammed Ahmed, the self styled Mahdi who gathered an army and was busy conquering the Sudan and laying waste to those who didn't think of him as an Islamic Messiah.
The Prime minister of the UK at the time was William Gladstone who did not want any British commitment any more than was necessary to defend the new Suez Canal which his predecessor Benjamin Disraeli had acquired after the French company that built it went belly up. Gordon was ordered to go to Khartoum and get the Egyptians and Europeans out of there.
But Gordon had other ideas, seeing himself as the either the victor in an apocalyptic clash with Islam or a martyr to his faith. Either way that man had a spectacular finish for his career planned. He stays and organizes a defense of Khartoum and wages a media campaign to get the British public on his side.
I hope all this sounds familiar because it should. Some valuable lessons could be learned by today's political strategists of several nations.
Charlton Heston does a very good job in portraying Gordon on all levels of his personality. His Gordon is idealistic and shrewd and also sometimes a bit of a fathead as well. There's a scene where Gordon goes with Sir Evelyn Baring the British viceroy in Egypt played by Alexander Knox to visit a former big shot in the Sudan played by Pakistani actor Zia Moyheddin. Mind you Gordon a few years back had executed Moyheddin's son for slave trading. Now he thinks he can cut a deal with him. This was his first option in bringing order back to the Sudan. Moyheddin tells him to take his offer and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
In watching that I was thinking of George Bush summoning Saddam Hussein to the White House saying all was forgiven, could he please go back and help get a handle on Iraq.
Ralph Richardson is Gladstone and he's pretty much as I have conceived Gladstone. Michael Hordern as Foreign Secretary Lord Granville and Nigel Green as General Garnet Wolesley are also true to historical type.
Richard Johnson played Gordon's aide Colonel John Stewart and Charlton Heston says that this was the start of a long friendship with Johnson. He and Heston did many joint projects on film and on stage after Khartoum.
The movie is magnificently filmed, should be seen in theaters really or in letterbox for television. The Mahdi and Gordon never met, just like Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor never met, but it had to be for dramatic effect.
No one knows exactly what happened in Khartoum, but it could have happened as the film portrays it. See it for yourself and judge if you think it could be accurate.
Heston plays General Charles Gordon known to the British public as Chinese Gordon for his years of service in the Orient before arriving in the Middle East. Gordon never married, devoted his entire life to two things, Christianity and the military. He was an idealist and he saw the expansion of British power in Africa as a leavening civilizing influence among the heathen.
Unfortunately Heston was faced with an opponent who was as fanatically religious in his own way as Heston was. Laurence Olivier used the same makeup and accent from Othello to play Muhammed Ahmed, the self styled Mahdi who gathered an army and was busy conquering the Sudan and laying waste to those who didn't think of him as an Islamic Messiah.
The Prime minister of the UK at the time was William Gladstone who did not want any British commitment any more than was necessary to defend the new Suez Canal which his predecessor Benjamin Disraeli had acquired after the French company that built it went belly up. Gordon was ordered to go to Khartoum and get the Egyptians and Europeans out of there.
But Gordon had other ideas, seeing himself as the either the victor in an apocalyptic clash with Islam or a martyr to his faith. Either way that man had a spectacular finish for his career planned. He stays and organizes a defense of Khartoum and wages a media campaign to get the British public on his side.
I hope all this sounds familiar because it should. Some valuable lessons could be learned by today's political strategists of several nations.
Charlton Heston does a very good job in portraying Gordon on all levels of his personality. His Gordon is idealistic and shrewd and also sometimes a bit of a fathead as well. There's a scene where Gordon goes with Sir Evelyn Baring the British viceroy in Egypt played by Alexander Knox to visit a former big shot in the Sudan played by Pakistani actor Zia Moyheddin. Mind you Gordon a few years back had executed Moyheddin's son for slave trading. Now he thinks he can cut a deal with him. This was his first option in bringing order back to the Sudan. Moyheddin tells him to take his offer and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
In watching that I was thinking of George Bush summoning Saddam Hussein to the White House saying all was forgiven, could he please go back and help get a handle on Iraq.
Ralph Richardson is Gladstone and he's pretty much as I have conceived Gladstone. Michael Hordern as Foreign Secretary Lord Granville and Nigel Green as General Garnet Wolesley are also true to historical type.
Richard Johnson played Gordon's aide Colonel John Stewart and Charlton Heston says that this was the start of a long friendship with Johnson. He and Heston did many joint projects on film and on stage after Khartoum.
The movie is magnificently filmed, should be seen in theaters really or in letterbox for television. The Mahdi and Gordon never met, just like Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor never met, but it had to be for dramatic effect.
No one knows exactly what happened in Khartoum, but it could have happened as the film portrays it. See it for yourself and judge if you think it could be accurate.