I Watch Films: Khartoum

 

Khartoum

It’s 1883, the Egyptians send a poorly trained army of ten thousand men under a British colonel into the Sudan to put down a rebellion. They are defeated by the Mahdi (Laurence Olivier, blacked up). There is great uproar in Britain, but Prime Minister Gladstone doesn’t want to send troops or get involved. They come up with an idea; they’ll ask General Gordon (Charlton Heston) to go there, take control, and evacuate any Egyptians from Khartoum. Gordon agrees; he’s been in the Sudan before, putting down the slave trade.

Gordon has a plan, to put a powerful Sudanese in power in Khartoum, to check the Mahdi’s wild, messianic army of tribesmen. But it turns out he was a slave trader and Gordon executed his son so that doesn’t work. Gordon sets off nonetheless.

Khartoum is cut off, raiders controlling some of the Nile. Gordon organises defences even though he’s been told to evacuate. He meets with the Mahdi, going into his camp with a single servant, gaining his respect. The Mahdi has ambitions, to pray in the mosque at Khartoum, and also Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Constantinople. And when he prays, he will go there as conqueror; he will not allow the inhabitants to leave.

Gordon leads a raid to seize supplies. He digs a moat; Khartoum is at the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, a strong position. The British have finally sent a relief force, but they have secret orders not to advance to Sudan, only to pressure Gordon to come out. Too late they learn all the Europeans except Gordon and his officers have been sent out by him. They advance too late for the final, apocalyptic battle.

It's a historical action drama! Gordon’s religious convictions are referred to several times but never actually get stated. The Mahdi’s do; indeed Mahdi is a figure of Islamic prophecy who he had claimed the mantle of. If we’re to take anything from this it’s that British and Egyptian politicians won’t act, and so it’s the men on the front line who have to do things (though to be fair they also muck it up sometimes too). The film has overture, intermission and exit music sections, a puzzlingly old-fashioned touch.

Watch This: Magnificent historical action film with drama, plotting and clash of civilisations
Don’t Watch This: For all it’s noting equivalencies between cultures, it’s still quite imperialist