Khartoum

Sudan in the 1880s. Muhammad Ahmad declares himself the Mahdi and advances with a large army. An Egyptian force is annihilated. In London the government does not know what to do; it does not want to intervene and cannot escape the responsibility either. The prime minister finds a name: General Charles Gordon. The man served in Sudan before and is known in the region. Gordon is sent to Khartoum; the task is to organise an evacuation. But he decides to stay. The city is besieged. Gordon and the Mahdi speak face to face once. Basil Dearden directs; Eliot Elisofon ran the second unit. Charlton Heston plays Gordon and Laurence Olivier plays the Mahdi; Ralph Richardson is in the cast. It was shot in wide format and the exteriors were done in Egypt. The meeting scene is invented; it is known that Gordon and the Mahdi did not meet in person. Laurence Olivier wore make up for the part, a choice plainly found problematic today. The matter it treats is an empire refusing responsibility; London stays undecided and support is sent late. Gordon was in fact killed at Khartoum; the relief force reached the city a few days late. The narrative builds both men as men of belief and sets them against each other. Its limit is viewpoint; the narrative belongs to the colonial period and the Sudanese side is not opened enough. Who it is for: viewers who like historical epic and wide format productions of the sixties. Who it is not for: it is long, the representation a problem, and the historical accuracy partial.