Khartoum (film)

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 weak-willed 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...
Read More