I first saw "Dark of the Sun" when I stumbled across it on TV. I was prompted to phone a friend and urge him to switch on this wild movie I was watching. Yesterday I saw the letterboxed version, and it's every bit as good as I remember it, plus it's not just a bone-head turn-on, but a fairly intelligent piece of cinema with an introspective hero and interesting themes. It reminds me of the Leonardo DiCaprio flick "Blood Diamond". Both films portray mercenaries, rough and cynical men who are on the edge and are pushed toward a state of grace.
It's a guy thing. "Dark of the Sun", on the surface, is a violent, kick-ass action yarn about two mercenaries (Rod Taylor and Jim Brown) heading by train deep into the interior of the Congo to retrieve a cache of diamonds and, if convenient, some white refugees. A savage civil war is going full tilt. There's a nasty Nazi with an agenda, lots of blood-letting, total breakdown of law and order, wild, drunken black revolutionaries raping nuns and sodomizing young white guys. Polite it is not. Lots of brawn, muscle and sweat. It's as if the director (Jack Cardiff) grabbed a megaphone and screamed at the actors and extras: " Alright! Are you ready to ROCK?" To say that the action is energetic is an understatement. To quell your misgivings, though, I should add that much of the goings-on has a frenetic comic book feel. The poster for the movie actually gives a good idea what the movie is like. If you're a fan of Roberto Rodriguez, particularly his "Planet Terror", this movie should be right up your alley. I admit that there's a place in cinema and in my heart for heads-on bad taste.
It's a guy thing. "Dark of the Sun", on the surface, is a violent, kick-ass action yarn about two mercenaries (Rod Taylor and Jim Brown) heading by train deep into the interior of the Congo to retrieve a cache of diamonds and, if convenient, some white refugees. A savage civil war is going full tilt. There's a nasty Nazi with an agenda, lots of blood-letting, total breakdown of law and order, wild, drunken black revolutionaries raping nuns and sodomizing young white guys. Polite it is not. Lots of brawn, muscle and sweat. It's as if the director (Jack Cardiff) grabbed a megaphone and screamed at the actors and extras: " Alright! Are you ready to ROCK?" To say that the action is energetic is an understatement. To quell your misgivings, though, I should add that much of the goings-on has a frenetic comic book feel. The poster for the movie actually gives a good idea what the movie is like. If you're a fan of Roberto Rodriguez, particularly his "Planet Terror", this movie should be right up your alley. I admit that there's a place in cinema and in my heart for heads-on bad taste.