Review of Khartoum (1966) by Martin B — 22 Jan 2011

Still in 1966 the view upon historic events is of course messed up. The british saw it as only natural to divide and conquer Africa as they pleased and in this movie, only to make things more confusing, the british help out their alley egypt to their part of the prey of Africa (Sudan). Just a few years efter this, Egypt itself gets colonized by the very Great Britain.

So there is this agyptian outpost in Sudan called Khartoum which is filled with egyptians and some europeans. The rest of the land around is in the hands of upcoming revelutionary muslim star Mahdi. The british won't really have anything with this affair to do with those odds and sends General Gordon to the site to supervise the evacuation of important people, but he's got his own ideas and stays and defend the city in the upcoming attack.

Gordon played by american superstar Heston actually makes a more low key performance than usual and even though the movie is a bit "talkie" and of course historically incorrect it is based upon real events and is really interesting .Actions scenes in the end of the movie is quite good with a big budget for it's time.