Khartoum (film)

Infobox Film
name = Khartoum


caption = original film poster by Frank McCarthy
director = Basil Dearden
Eliot Elisofon
(introductory scenes)
producer = Julian Blaustein
writer = Robert Ardrey
starring = Laurence Olivier
Charlton Heston
Richard Johnson
Ralph Richardson
music = Frank Cordell
cinematography = Edward Scaife
editing =
distributor = United Artists
released = 15 June 1966
runtime = 134 min.
(USA: 128 min.)
country = UK
awards =
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:27155
imdb_id = 0060588

"Khartoum" is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden.

The film stars Charlton Heston as General Gordon, with Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi (Mahommed Ahmed), and is based on Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army during the Battle of Khartoum.

"Khartoum" was filmed by cinematographer Ted Scaife in Ultra Panavision 70, and was exhibited in 70 mm Cinerama in premiere engagements. A novelisation of the film's screenplay was written by Alan Caillou.

Plot

The film is about the last months before the British lost their emplacement in Sudan - in theory a subject territory of Egypt - in January 1885. Britain had occupied, but did not formally annex, Egypt in 1883. This is why Gordon, who is technically the "Egyptian" governor of the Sudan, wears a red Egyptian fez.

The political origins of the Khartoum affair are unclear. The film postulates a meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr Gladstone (correctly shown wearing a finger-stall to cover a finger lost in a shooting accident as a young man), and other officials, which Gladstone ends by declaring never to have taken place.

In a shortened and simplified way the film shows how Khartoum was under siege by the Mahdist army while General Gordon had been planning last strategies before Khartoum fell and he was killed in action.

The secret meeting between Gordon and the Mahdi in the Mahdist camp, as portrayed in the film, is entirely fictional.

The final shot of Gordon descending a staircase before being speared to death, is based on a famous painting.

Major Kitchener, who played a role in Wolseley's relief expedition, was himself later a famous general and commanded the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan in 1898. He was known thereafter as Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.

The closing scene

The following words are from the closing scene of the film, spoken by a narrator (Leo Genn):

" "The relief came two days late. Two days."And for 15 years the Sudanese paid the price with pestilence and famine, the British with shame and war." Within months after Gordon died, the Mahdi died. Why, we shall never know. " Gordon rests in his beloved Sudan." We cannot tell how long his memory will live. But there is this:" a world with no room for the Gordons is a world that will return to the sands."

(Transcribed from the film.)

Principal cast

* Charlton Heston - General Charles Gordon
* Laurence Olivier - Mahommed Ahmed, referred to as the Mahdi
* Richard Johnson - Colonel Stewart
* Ralph Richardson - William Gladstone, British Prime Minister
* Alexander Knox - Sir Evelyn Baring, the British ruler of Egypt.
* Johnny Sekka - Khaleel
* Nigel Green - General Wolseley
* Michael Hordern - Lord Granville, the British Foreign Secretary
* Peter Arne - Major Kitchener
* Hugh Williams - Lord Hartington
* Zobeir

Award nominations

External links

*imdb title|id=0060588|title=Khartoum
*amg movie|id=1:27155|title=Khartoum
*rotten-tomatoes|id=khartoum|title=Khartoum