Khartoum (film)

Khartoum
original film poster by Frank McCarthy
Directed by	Basil Dearden Eliot Elisofon (introductory scenes)
Produced by	Julian Blaustein
Written by	Robert Ardrey
Starring	Laurence Olivier Charlton Heston Richard Johnson Ralph Richardson
Music by	Frank Cordell
Cinematography	Edward Scaife
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	15 June 1966
Running time	134 min. (USA: 128 min.)
Country	UK
Language	English

Khartoum is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden. It stars Charlton Heston as General Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi (Muhammad Ahmed) and is based on Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army during the Siege 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

In 1883 Sudan, a large, poorly-trained Egyptian force under the command of British Colonel William "Billy" Hicks (Edward Underdown) is lured into the desert and slaughtered by Muslim zealots led by Muhammad Ahmad, a fanatic Sudanese Arab who believes he is the Mahdi, the prophesied "expected one of Mohammed". The British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (Ralph Richardson), who does not wish to send more military forces to Khartoum, is under great pressure to send military hero General Charles Gordon there to salvage the situation and restore British prestige. Gordon has strong ties to Sudan, having broken the slave trade in the past, but Gladstone distrusts him. The man has a reputation for strong, if eccentric, religious beliefs and following his own judgment, regardless of his orders. Granville Leveson-Gower, the British foreign secretary (Michael Hordern), knowing this, tells Gladstone that by sending the military hero Gordon to Khartoum, the British government can ignore all public pressure to send an army there, and absolve themselves of any responsibility over the area if Gordon ignores his orders. Gladstone affects to be shocked at the suggestion, but as it is popular the public and Queen Victoria, he adopts it for the sake of expediency.

Gordon is told that his mission, to evacuate troops and civilians, is unsanctioned by the British government, which will disavow all responsibility if he fails. He is given few resources and only a single aide, Colonel J. D. H. Stewart (Richard Johnson). After an attempt to recruit former slaver Zobeir Pasha (Zia Mohyeddin) fails, Gordon and Stewart travel to Khartoum, where Gordon is hailed as the city's savior upon his arrival in February 1884. He begins organizing the defences and rallying the people, despite Stewart's protests that this is not what he was sent to do.

Gordon's first act is to visit the Mahdi in his insurgent camp, accompanied only by a single servant. He gains the latter's respect and, in the verbal fencing at the parlay, discovers that the rebel leader intends to make an example of Khartoum by taking the city and killing all its inhabitants. The Nile River city of Khartoum lies at the junction of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. A qualified military engineer, Gordon wastes no time upon his return in digging a ditch between the two to provide a protective moat.

In Britain, Gladstone, apprised how desperate the situation has become, orders Gordon to leave, but, as he had feared, his command is ignored. Over the next several months, a public outcry forces Gladstone to send a relief force, but he sees to it that there is no urgency, hoping to the last that Gordon will come to his senses and save himself.

Gordon, however, has other ideas. When the waters recede in winter, drying up his moat, the small Egyptian army is finally overwhelmed by 100,000 Mahdist tribesmen. On January 26, 1885, the city falls under a massive frontal assault. Gordon himself is killed along with the entire garrison and populace of some 30,000, although the Mahdi had forbidden killing Gordon. At the last, the film shows Gordon's head cut off, stuck on top of a long pole, and paraded about the city in triumph, contrary to the Mahdi's injunctions (this sequence was censored in the DVD release).

A narrator (Leo Genn) notes that the relief column arrived two days too late. The British withdrew from the Sudan shortly thereafter, and the Mahdi himself died six months later. But in the United Kingdom, public pressure and anger at the fate of Gordon finally forced the British to re-invade the Sudan 10 years later and recaptured Khartoum in 1898.

Historical notes

The film concerns the last months before the British lost their military position in Sudan - in theory a subject territory of Egypt - in January 1885. Britain had occupied, but did not formally annex, Egypt in 1883. Egypt was technically a tributary part of the Ottoman Empire at the time. This is why Gordon, who is technically the "Egyptian" governor of the Sudan, wears a red Turkish fez and the fort and troops under his command display the red, fork-tailed Turkish flag.

The political origins of the Khartoum affair are unclear. The film postulates a meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. W.E. Gladstone (correctly shown wearing a finger-stall to cover a finger lost in a shooting accident as a young man), and other officials. Due to the questionable moral character of their decision -- dumping Gordon into an impossible situation, to make him the scapegoat if things blow up -- Gladstone leaves declaring the meeting never occurred, thus protecting his deniability in the affair; but at the same time requesting the others contact him immediately at Balmoral to let him know if Gordon accepts. This is tolerable as storytelling technique and revelation of character, but there is no proof such a meeting happened or that, if it did, the dialogue depicted in the film was the substance. The film goes to some lengths to lampoon Gladstone's soft position on imperialism without exploring the valid reasons why he was reluctant to commit in Sudan.

Although Gordon and the Mahdi did correspond by letter, the meetings between the two in the Mahdist camp, as portrayed in the film, are entirely fictitious. These councils may have been inspired by Gordon's earlier, similar meeting with Darfur rebels in 1878.

The final battle of Khartoum was an invention for the film. In fact, after a prolonged siege, the city fell by treachery, accomplices within opening a door for the Mahdist forces to enter by night. Thousands were roused from their sleep only to be slaughtered.

The final shot of Gordon descending a staircase before being speared to death, is based on a famous painting by George W. Joy. Like the other scenes of the "fall of Khartoum", it must be regarded as a fabrication by the filmmakers to ensure a more robust box office.

Charlton Heston, incidentally, stood almost a foot taller than the real Gordon.

Major Kitchener (Peter Arne), who played a role in Gen. Wolseley's (Nigel Green) relief expedition, was himself later a famous general and commanded the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan in 1898. He was known thereafter as Baron Kitchener of Khartoum. Much admired in England, Kitchener went on to be the British second-in-command in the Boer War and War Minister in World War I.

Cast

• Charlton Heston as General Charles Gordon
• Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi
• Richard Johnson as Colonel Stewart
• Ralph Richardson as William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister
• Alexander Knox as Sir Evelyn Baring, the British ruler of Egypt
• Johnny Sekka as Khaleel
• Nigel Green as General Wolseley
• Michael Hordern as Lord Granville, the British Foreign Secretary
• Peter Arne as Major Kitchener
• Hugh Williams as Lord Hartington
• Zia Mohyeddin as Zobeir Pasha
• Ralph Michael as Charles Duke
• Douglas Wilmer as Khalifa Abdullah
• Edward Underdown as William Hicks
• Alan Tilvern as Awaan

Award nominations

Nominated:
Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen	Robert Ardrey
BAFTA Award for Best British Actor	Ralph Richardson
BAFTA Award for Best British Art Direction (Colour)	John Howell

External links

• Khartoum at the Internet Movie Database
• Khartoum at the TCM Movie Database
• Khartoum at AllRovi
• Khartoum at Rotten Tomatoes