Watchable historical drama featuring a top-name cast, good production values, and impressive scenery. But I think Khartoum misses the mark a few too many times to really shine.
Most of the problems are relatively small, but they add up. Charlton Heston seems a bit overmatched by his role, and his on-again/off-again British accent is never convincing. Laurence Olivier, top-billed despite having much less screen time, turns in a mesmerizing performance as the Mahdi, but you have to overlook his heavy "blackface" makeup, which drew criticism even in 1966. The battle scenes are unimaginatively staged; despite hordes of extras and sweeping desert vistas, the action generates little excitement. The desert settngs are not particularly well used, and the location filming is compromised by intercutting with obvious studio sets and traveling matte shots (to superimpose the lead actors onto the background).
The movie wants to be an epic and even offers an overture, an intermission, and exit music. All this seems excessive for a film with a running time just a hair over two hours. Clearly they wanted it to be another Lawrence of Arabia, but General Gordon is not the conflicted, complex figure that Lawrence is, and Heston is not Peter O'Toole, and Khartoum's director, whose name I forget, is not David Lean.
Not a bad movie, even good in spots - the (entirely unhistorical) meetings between Gordon and the Mahdi are highlights - but ultimately nothing special, and much less than it could have been.
Most of the problems are relatively small, but they add up. Charlton Heston seems a bit overmatched by his role, and his on-again/off-again British accent is never convincing. Laurence Olivier, top-billed despite having much less screen time, turns in a mesmerizing performance as the Mahdi, but you have to overlook his heavy "blackface" makeup, which drew criticism even in 1966. The battle scenes are unimaginatively staged; despite hordes of extras and sweeping desert vistas, the action generates little excitement. The desert settngs are not particularly well used, and the location filming is compromised by intercutting with obvious studio sets and traveling matte shots (to superimpose the lead actors onto the background).
The movie wants to be an epic and even offers an overture, an intermission, and exit music. All this seems excessive for a film with a running time just a hair over two hours. Clearly they wanted it to be another Lawrence of Arabia, but General Gordon is not the conflicted, complex figure that Lawrence is, and Heston is not Peter O'Toole, and Khartoum's director, whose name I forget, is not David Lean.
Not a bad movie, even good in spots - the (entirely unhistorical) meetings between Gordon and the Mahdi are highlights - but ultimately nothing special, and much less than it could have been.