Before deciding whether to DVR this one, on TCM's Summer Under the Stars Rod Taylor day, I checked various sources for recommendations and found several that said The Mercenaries aka Dark of the Sun (1968) was Taylor's finest hour, his best performance etc. Well, I'm not sure why anyone would say so, especially if they'd seen him in Young Cassidy (1965), The Birds (1963), The Time Machine (1960), or in various character roles.
While Curry (Taylor) is unquestionably the one on whom the entire movie hangs and experiences an unconvincing transformation at its end, he's primarily a one-dimensional character. Taylor may have worked hard as an actor to perform the physicality required by the role, but that's about it. The movie itself seems just an excuse for some colorful over-the-top violence, directed by the Oscar winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff. The dialogue is pedestrian and some of the scene setups are ludicrous, though some may suffer from the ratings board's required cuts.
I recently watched Blood Diamond (2006), and while I would hardly recommend it either, at least it's easy to understand the motives behind the gratuitous violence in that one. In Dark of the Sun (1968), the reasons for the Simbas actions aren't explained, or they're just assumed to be savages, which makes the filmmakers' narrative rather racist. While they could have cast this viewpoint on the German (Peter Carsten) who wears a swastika, he's more of an opportunist than anything else.
As for the rest of the cast, Jim Brown plays Jim Brown, the altruistic "man of action" character he played throughout much of his career. Yvette Mimieux doesn't really add much besides her pretty face - a pawn between Curry and the Nazi, and Kenneth More plays the stereotypical drunk doctor who realizes just in time that he's needed and seeks redemption in his final act.
While Curry (Taylor) is unquestionably the one on whom the entire movie hangs and experiences an unconvincing transformation at its end, he's primarily a one-dimensional character. Taylor may have worked hard as an actor to perform the physicality required by the role, but that's about it. The movie itself seems just an excuse for some colorful over-the-top violence, directed by the Oscar winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff. The dialogue is pedestrian and some of the scene setups are ludicrous, though some may suffer from the ratings board's required cuts.
I recently watched Blood Diamond (2006), and while I would hardly recommend it either, at least it's easy to understand the motives behind the gratuitous violence in that one. In Dark of the Sun (1968), the reasons for the Simbas actions aren't explained, or they're just assumed to be savages, which makes the filmmakers' narrative rather racist. While they could have cast this viewpoint on the German (Peter Carsten) who wears a swastika, he's more of an opportunist than anything else.
As for the rest of the cast, Jim Brown plays Jim Brown, the altruistic "man of action" character he played throughout much of his career. Yvette Mimieux doesn't really add much besides her pretty face - a pawn between Curry and the Nazi, and Kenneth More plays the stereotypical drunk doctor who realizes just in time that he's needed and seeks redemption in his final act.