At once an obscure, unfairly overlooked
adventure epic while also enduring as a cult favorite held dear by
many fans, up to and including some of today's most famous and
influential directors, Dark of the Sun (1968) is a captivating,
brutal, eye-popping movie with a great cast. Based on a 1965 novel
called The Dark of the Sun by Wilbur Smith, it concerns a desperate
rescue mission taking place within the Belgian Congo during that
region's fiercely bloody series of uprisings and civil wars.
The novel concerned four white male
mercenaries (later joined by a Belgian female civilian) who undergo a
tumultuous experience completing their mission and are either a part
of or are confronted with considerable violence. The briskly-paced,
brief (under 300 pages) novel was adapted reasonably-closely for the
film adaptation, though, like most transitions, some elements were
augmented along the way.
The movie kicks off with plenty of
unrest at a Congo airfield in which people are struggling to get out,
but held back by guards. However, just arriving are mercenaries (an
alternate title for this film is “The Mercenaries”) Rod Taylor
and Jim Brown. The rugged, brawny, masculine duo has been sent for by
the acting leader of the Congo, Calvin Lockhart. (Do take note of the
gray-haired woman in green just right of center in the crowd photo.
More on her later.)
Lockhart needs money for guns and other
resources in order to maintain govern- mental control and one sure way
to retrieve it is by sending Taylor and Brown on a rescue mission.
Thing is, the people they are to rescue are incidental. The real arc
of the mission is to obtain $50 million worth of uncut diamonds which
are located in a town called Port Reprieve, 300 miles away! They are
to head by train to the town, collect any and all survivors, but be
certain to bring back the ice...
For this life-risking challenge, Taylor
will be paid $50,000 and must be back with the diamonds within three
days at most. Brown, his close associate, doesn't even want any of
the money. Though raised abroad (which conveniently accounts for his
American dialect), he was raised in the Congo by parents who were
transitioning from superstitious natives to contemporary citizens.
Don't Taylor and Brown look fetching in their khaki shorts?
Brown has barely been given the mission
when he sits down at the bar to sketch out the details of how the
train needs to be set up and which personnel will be required. The
inset shows how his plans segued into reality after plenty of
coordinating and arranging at the train depot.
Taylor turns to local doctor Kenneth
More, a rather down- trodden fellow with a great love of booze. After
roguishly toying with him back and forth, Taylor convinces him to
come along on the mission in exchange for a case of Scotch (with more
to come once they arrive back.) Taylor gives him one bottle in
advance and, knowing that More will soon become plastered, tells him
he'll have someone come to get him at dawn when the group plans to
depart. Here, the director makes good use of the widescreen format
and Taylor's gams.
Next, Taylor meets up with former (?)
Nazi Peter Carsten who's a key part of the military establish- ment of
Lockhart's reign. Taylor loathes Carsten, but knows he must rely on
him for his own knowledge of the territory and for help with the use
of forty soldiers that are requested for the mission. Karsten flaunts
a swastika pendant and takes pleasure in baiting Taylor at most every
opportunity.
The mission gets underway with a small
series of train cars: an engine, a caboose, a passenger car and two
open freight cars barricaded with sandbags and outfitted with
automatic weapons (including anti-aircraft rifles.) Another officer
Olivier Despax joins Taylor and his crew, though he proves to be
inexperienced and tentative in his approach.
Despax falls short when an airplane
under the direction of U.N. forces opens fire on the train, believing
the heavily-armed convoy is on its way to cause harm rather than
perform a rescue. Despite Taylor's protestations on the train's
radio, his men are fired upon and some are killed, with one of the
passenger cars engulfed in flame. Despax is unable to continue manning one of the guns in the face of death. (You'll note in the French lobby still below, Frenchman Despax is given prestige billing which isn't found in the movie's actual credits.)
More, who had to be carried on to the
train by Brown during a drunken haze, is horrified to awaken and find
that Taylor has pitched his entire case of Scotch overboard. The two
have a heated exchange in which More assures Taylor that he will find
a way to make him pay for going along on this mission alcohol-free.
Now, thirty minutes in, we are
introduced to the first primary female character. As the train chugs
up to a Belgian planter's estate, it is obvious that some carnage has
taken place. A body with one leg removed is lying in the drive and
rushing through the brush is a distraught Yvette Mimieux, clad only
in a nightgown and an overcoat.
Taylor helps Mimieux on board the train
where she attempts to convey what has happened despite considerable
shock. She tells them that revolu- tionaries came in the night, killing
everyone but her because she'd been sent to an underground hiding
place.
Taylor inquires as to who the smallest
man is on the train, so that he can obtain some clothes for the
bedraggled Mimieux. The doctor, who isn't doing particularly well
himself without the crutch of the bottle, attempts to calm her down
and reassure her that she's now safe.
The train pulls up to a watering
station that appears to be abandoned. Just as the soldiers are
readying to pull out again, two native children appear in tattered
clothes. Carsten encourages Brown to question them and see if there
are rebels anywhere nearby, but the kids don't appear to know
anything. Taylor instructs Carsten to give them some food and send
them back to wherever they came from, but Carsten – in a shocking
move – disobeys Taylor.
Carsten, who is quickly emerging as the
fly in the mission's ointment, next turns his attentions to Mimieux,
who is not at all interested. Taylor tells him to back off and then
out of nowhere Carsten goes mad, walloping and beating Taylor
savagely.
He next picks up a nearby chainsaw that
was in use for firewood and starts swinging away at Taylor! Taylor
has to defend himself with little bits of log as Carsten relentlessly
aims the chainsaw at him, scraping his stomach with it at one point! (This is one of the movie's most famous sequences.)
At last Taylor gets the upper hand and
pushes Carsten to the ground, maneuvering his head onto the train
track just in front of one of the wheels. He then calls for the
engineer to start the train so that Carsten's head will be severed!
Brown, realizing that the mission
relies on Carsten's knowledge and expertise, pulls the men away from
the train and pounces on a furious Taylor to convince him to call it
off. Reluctantly, Taylor agrees to let Carsten live. (It must be noted that the use of undercranking during filming lends an unfortunately erratic tinge to part of this scuffle.)
Now arriving at Port Reprieve, the
soldiers are confronted by a horde of townspeople eager to get the
hell out of Dodge before the bloodthirsty Simbas arrive. Taylor is
greeted by the leader of the town Andre Morell, who gives him the
decidedly unhappy news that, although the citizens of the town are
ready to leave, the diamonds that Taylor has come for are in a
time-locked safe that can not be opened for three more hours!!
Morell's wife takes Mimieux to get her
a change of clothes (which, hilariously, include figure-hugging white
slacks that do not seem at all like something that the wife would
have hanging around in her closet!)
Taylor is astonished to find, in this ostensibly rural and fairly rundown-looking town, an elaborate
underground bunker with a massive vault contained within! It is clearly impenetrable
and he has no choice but to wait out the three hours, even though
Morell has informed him that the Simbas probably know that he is
coming there and will soon be converging on the town with a taste for blood.
Morell implores Taylor to take a side
trip to a nearby convent where a priest and several nuns have refused
to leave and join the rest of the evacuees. Taylor, with Mimieux in
tow, takes a jeep to the convent where he is informed by the priest
that no one from there is leaving. Not only that, but a desperately
ill native woman has been in childbirth for three straight days and a
doctor is sorely needed.
Back at Port Reprieve, the reliably
detestable Carsten has been getting doctor More drunk and is shooting
up the local watering hole for fun. By the time Taylor has returned
from the convent to collect More to deliver the baby, More is
plastered and has no desire to go. Taylor forces him to, however.
Though she may not look it in this
shot, the pregnant woman is in total agony from a pending breech
birth and More decides that he has to do a Caesarian section on her.
He wants another drink first, though, which Taylor denies, leading to
an argument that Mimieux has to put to a stop with an outburst.
With time ticking, Taylor has no choice
but to leave More at the convent and get back to the town. Once
there, even though the timer is very close to clicking, the Simbas
have arrived and they are ready to slaughter anything and anyone they
get their hands on! This portion of the film, in particular, is
extremely suspenseful as Taylor sweats out the retrieval of the
diamonds as rampaging natives begin to close in all around him.
Finally, the diamonds are collected and
everyone heads for the redirected train. Here's the thing... Remember that
heavy, gray-haired lady I pointed out at the start of this post? She
was waiting at the airport to exit the country. Now, she's on the
train!!! In a glaring continuity error, this extra wound up in two
places, 300 miles apart! No, bitch, you do not get to play in two totally different scenes in the same dress and get double pay and expect to get it past me!! LOL
Anyway, with everyone piled on the
train and it chugging away uphill as fast as it can, the rebels begin
firing shells towards it. Morell, under fire, darts into the last car
with the diamonds to join his frantic wife, against Taylor's orders to go to the caboose (which is now near the front of the train.)
Unfortunately, as the train has just crossed a large bridge, a shell lands on one of the couplings and the last car, filled with people and the diamonds, too, comes unhitched and begins to roll back to Port Reprieve!
Unfortunately, as the train has just crossed a large bridge, a shell lands on one of the couplings and the last car, filled with people and the diamonds, too, comes unhitched and begins to roll back to Port Reprieve!
Not only is this an exciting sequence
in the film, but it is also vividly gut-wrenching (and unexpected. We
don't expect the rescuees to undergo this.) Taylor's own section of
the train is damaged beyond use, too, so everyone has to get off and
hide in the terrain while he decides what to do.
Back in town, things have taken a
horrifying turn. The Simbas are destroying everything and everyone in
sight. They're drinking heavily, torturing and raping anyone they can
and Despax is getting the worst of it.
In retaliation for being one of the
officers who once reigned over them, a gaggle of the rebels beat him
savagely, then shuck his pants, hurl him across the pool table
(securing his head in place with a boot-covered foot) and have their
way with him.
Meanwhile, Taylor and Brown devise a scheme in
which Brown will adopt the guise of a Simba and carry the
“unconscious” Taylor into the hotel where they hope to discover
the whereabouts of the diamonds and get them back.
On the way and once inside, they can
hardly believe the carnage around them, but Brown does his best to
act as if he belongs among them. Finally in place, he puts Taylor
down and the two of them open fire on everyone inside.
Brown mows as many Simba down as he can
while Taylor jumps off a balcony and onto another pool table to grab
the diamonds. He barely escapes with his life as he and Brown dart
through an open window and into a truck that Carsten has secured (one
of several they have stolen to transport the remaining survivors back
to civilization.)
Things, however, are far from over. The
gasoline truck, so all-important for making the trip back over rough
terrain, is destroyed. Taylor decides he has to go back to an abandoned radio
room and send a request for provisions to be dropped to them from
Lockhart's army.
While Taylor is gone, Carsten finally
unleashes his truly horrible side and starts looking for the diamonds
wherever he can and at any cost. He doesn't mind killing in order to
get his hands on the diamonds and even tracks down Mimieux down at
the river to assault her until she tells him where they are, though
she has no clue.
Once back, Taylor is completely
outraged and becomes deranged. Taylor learns that Carsten has
fashioned a raft and is one his way down the river. He chases Carsten
down like an animal and attacks him with relentless force.
The two scuffle in and around rocks, on hanging vines and in the water during what is one of 1960s' cinema's most visually arresting fight sequences.
The two scuffle in and around rocks, on hanging vines and in the water during what is one of 1960s' cinema's most visually arresting fight sequences.
In the wake of the knock-down,
drag-out, visceral battle between the men, Taylor is half out of his
mind, much to the disappointment of his subordinate officer Bloke
Modisane. The denouement of the film was changed in order to suit
(perhaps) image-conscious Taylor and seems a bit pat, though it must
be said that it also provides a moment of substantial emotion.
Dark of the Sun is, first and foremost,
a riveting action movie. By the standards of 1968, it clips along
with tremendous purpose while not eschewing quiet moments of
introspection and character development. (In many ways it resembles an action western, with Indians replaced by natives.) Directed by Jack Cardiff,
who was previously the cinematographer on such eye-popping movies as
Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948) among many others, it
is always beautiful with incredible use of color and framing.
One debit is the occasional use of
rear-projection. The location filming is so dazzling and
authentic-looking that when the movie suddenly switches to
sometimes-so so/sometimes-shoddy rear projection, the effect is a
jarring and not particularly pleasant one, though this was totally
standard procedure for that time, particularly when it came to
driving scenes.
A major plus is the evocative music by
jazz pianist and composer Jacques Loussier. Known for his
arrangements of various Bach pieces, Loussier also composed the
scores for many French films from the early-'60s through the
late-'90s. He is still alive today at eighty.
The lesser-known film seems to have nonetheless inspired those in the comic industry judging from this 1986 issue of G.I. Combat in which a trio of mercenaries (one black) are aiding a blonde female on the run from a throng of angry natives.
The lesser-known film seems to have nonetheless inspired those in the comic industry judging from this 1986 issue of G.I. Combat in which a trio of mercenaries (one black) are aiding a blonde female on the run from a throng of angry natives.
Taylor, an Underworld favorite who's
been profiled here, was an amazingly versatile performer who could do
anything from suave romance to light comedy to the gritty action
required in this movie. The Birds (1963) and Hotel (1967) are just
two of the many films of his we love.
His rugged, burly physicality was just
right for this role (loosely based upon a real-life mercenary who was
hired for the Congo conflict and who later also inspired a character
in The Wild Geese, 1978.)
He and Brown established a smooth, believable chemistry together and were a great-looking pair (seen here with producer George Englund, who was Cloris Leachman's husband for twenty-five years.)
He and Brown established a smooth, believable chemistry together and were a great-looking pair (seen here with producer George Englund, who was Cloris Leachman's husband for twenty-five years.)
This film reunited Taylor with Mimieux,
who was in 1960's The Time Machine with him. They, too, made an
appealing-looking couple. A love scene between them (in which Taylor
reported forced himself on her until she responds in kind) was cut
from the film, but a still is shown here...
...and it made some of the movie's
posters such as this one.
Taylor passed away in January of 2015
of a heart attack at age eighty-four. His final film role won him a
SAG Ensemble Award and was as Winston Churchill in Inglourious
Basterds (2009.) That movie was directed by Quentin Tarantino who,
along with Martin Scorcese and others, is a big fan of Dark of the
Sun. Tarantino even had several of the music tracks from Sun incorporated into Basterds.
Though Mimieux never became an
obsession of ours, it's remarkable how many of our favorite films she
has popped up in! Where the Boys Are (1960), Light in the Piazza
(1962), Diamond Head (1962), Skyjacked (1972) and The Neptune Factor
(1973) are only several of them.
Like many of her films (which have a
tendency to feature a lot of men and her as the sole significant
female), she is mostly attractive window-dressing here, but does have
a scene or two with some grit. Nevertheless, at no time is she shown
in the way depicted on this soundtrack album cover! Yes, in her first
scene she is wearing a nightgown and has a pistol in her hand, but
she never fires a gun, nor directly takes on the enemy in the fashion
shown here. Mimieux is alive today at
seventy-three, but hasn't appeared on screen since 1992.
Brown is another Underworld favorite
who has his own profile here. This was his third feature film
following a supporting role in Rio Conchos (1964) and a featured one
in The Dirty Dozen (1967), another movie notable for the level of
violence it contained. Brown was a top football running back who quit
midstream to pursue a movie career when the two enterprises began to
overlap.
A fit, muscular hulk of a man, he
possessed a gentle demeanor on screen that made him a terrific
counterpoint to stars with more forthright personalities like Taylor
and Burt Reynolds. Later, he emerged as a Blaxploitation hero in
take-no-prisoners flicks like Slaughter (1972) and Three the Hard Way
(1974) among others.
During the making of Sun, which was
filmed in Jamaica, not the actual Congo, Brown and the cast had free
time to spend on the beach swimming, tossing football and so on. Here
we see a shot of him enjoying the location. He is still with us today
at seventy-nine.
German actor Carsten was a very
prolific performer from the 1950s through the mid-1990s. Other
English-language films he worked on in this time frame include The
Quiller Memorandum (1966) and Zeppelin (1971.) One unfortunate thing
about his work in Sun is that for a considerable part of the time,
his own voice isn't used and omnipresent voice-actor Paul Frees takes
over. It's distracting and takes away somewhat from what is a
skillfully villainous portrayal. Carsten passed away in 2012 of
cancer at the age of eighty-three.
From the 1940s on, More provided a
variety of movie performances, charming and/or dramatic, and was a
highly-regarded stage actor in Great Britain as well. In fact, he had
a theatre named after him while he was still living. He lends plenty of dramatic heft to his comparatively small role. Memorable films
include A Night to Remember (1958), Sink the Bismarck! (1960) and
Scrooge (1970) among many others. Parkinson's Disease claimed him in
1982 at age sixty-seven, though he had acted up until 1980.
Morell began working in films in the
late-'30s and some of his include Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950),
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Ben-Hur (1959) and Barry Lyndon
(1975.) He remained active as a useful character actor on screen
right up until his death in 1978 of a heart attack at age sixty-nine.
Lockhart was a Bahaman actor who
enjoyed a spate of featured roles in the 1960s and '70s from The
High Commissioner and Joanna (both 1968) to Halls of Anger, Myra
Breckinridge and Cotton Comes to Harlem (all 1970.) In the mid-'80s,
he popped up briefly on Dynasty as a love interest for Diahann
Carroll and continued with small film roles. After suffering a
stroke, he died from its complications in 2007 at age seventy-two.
Despax was a guitarist and French pop
idol who turned to acting for a time in the mid-'60s. He performed quite a few Beatles covers in his native land. His is a
surprising role for someone with a teen following considering his
character is first presented as a coward prior to being viciously
attacked sexually by the Simbas. Sadly, Despax was taken by leukemia in 1974 at only age thirty-five.
Though the rape sequence was truncated
in the finished product (as were quite a few other violent sequences
from the chainsaw fight to a key murder to the final battle between
Taylor and Carsten), this rare still photo shows some of Despax'
white briefs and his hairy legs, neither of which are quite this visible in the
movie.
Dark of the Sun predates The Wild Bunch
(1969), whose “ballet of blood” changed forever audiences'
acceptance of violence on the big screen, though it came after Bonnie
and Clyde (1967) which had already sent viewers reeling with its
depiction of gunfire and killing. The Production Code was crumbling
fast, soon to be replaced with a ratings system which was still not
yet in place at this point. Director Cardiff made numerous cuts to
the movie prior to release in order to try to tone down the brutality
and gore, though he claimed that even what he cut was nothing
compared to the true atrocities of a conflict that cost an estimated
100,000 lives. Diehard fans of the movie long for a restored version,
though at this point it seems far from likely ever to see the light
of the sun.
10 comments:
It looks like a good action movie. Rod Taylor is reason enough to watch the movie, and with a score by Jacques Loussier is a huge plus.
I don't know what happened; my comment ended up posted three times!
This was a surprise. I have maybe seen bits of this movie on tv (the chain saw rang a bell). I recently watched "Sorcerer" with Roy Scheider" which was another jungle suspense movie with mercenaries. Reading all of this made me curious, the clincher being the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff. I am a rabid fan of The Archer Studio movies that you mentioned, especially "Black Narcissus" for the way they look. Yvette Mimieux sure did some fun stuff in the 60's. I will forever think of her as Weena in "The Time Machine"
Incredibly thorough recap of this rigorous adventure flick. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as you but it's a solid film.
Terrific cast. Always loved Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux has one of the great star names, even more so since it is her birth name and not an invention of an agent or publicist.
I don't know why, but I just can't quit watching this movie! I watched it again after my post was done (something I NEVER do) and then ran through a few highlights of it again a few days after that. Maybe its because so many movies from just before this one are sort of pat, trite and bland, but this one is pretty visceral and has such a distinctive look to it. Anyway, I think it would make an impression on those who are interested in watching it. Thanks!
IIRC Peter Carsten also had a a role as the German soldier escorting Oliver Reed and his elephant in the very wonderful "Hannibal Brooks."
And fans of movie advertising art might spot that this film had at least two fantastic promotional illustrations (Poster and Soundtrack LP cover) painted by the legendary Frank McCarthy.
Well, I saw it on its first release in the UK. It was indeed called THE MERCENARIES(which I notice is the title on the G.I.Combat comic-book you've reproduced) and I recall that it was given a drubbing by the critics in the UK because ofthe violence (mind you, it was the UK critics who destroyed Michael Powell's career with their vicious reaction to PEEPING TOM, so what did they know about anything?)
I disliked the film intensely - the moment on the doomed railcar, when Andre Morrell shoots his wife rather than leave her to be brutalized by the Congolese rebels, upset me dreadfully at my then tender age of 17.
I was wildly in love with Taylor AND Mimieux (the latter since WHERE THE BOYS ARE, the former since I was a small child infatuated over Taylor's "body beautiful" moment in WORLD WITHOUT END). Jack Cardiff also cast Taylor in YOUNG CASSISY, a hilariously bad biopic supposedly based on the life of the great Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, and the film is only memorable for one of Taylor's shirtless scenes, brief as it is.
Cardiff had an odd, inconsistent directing career - I still like GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (chiefly for Marianne Faithfull's engaging star turn) and then there was the rather grim oddity THE MUTATIONS, in which a friend of mine had a role and used to come home from each day's shooting shaking her head at what she was being asked to do.
I think Jim Brown is repellent - ever since he made a disgracefully homophobic insult not-so-subtly directed at Arsenio Hall on Hall's short-lived late-night talk show. To hell with him and his vacuously posturing "masculinity".
Oops. "YOUNG CASSISY" should of course be YOUNG CASSIDY.
I'm all thumbs today. :-)
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