Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Khartoum Blu-ray Movie Review

Gordon of Arabia.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 19, 2014

There’s probably a reason I often find myself struggling to remember important facts like the date of my anniversary or my children’s names—it’s because my head is stuffed to the breaking point with completely useless memories. Case in point: NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies was a regular viewing habit for me as a child, and I especially loved when the movies would end before their allotted two hour time slot and the network would fill the remaining time with either promotional videos or extended trailers tied to various upcoming broadcasts. For some bizarre reason, I can still clearly remember watching a trailer for Khartoum, which must have been produced after the roadshow engagements had ended, for it contained the typical “now at popular prices” label emblazoned over scenes from the movie. But what I really remember about the trailer was a breathless pull quote from some trade publication like The Hollywood Reporter or some such rag, which “folded” onto the screen and veritably screamed in breathless alacrity “Charlton Heston is staring down the throat of another Oscar!” For some reason, that image simply struck me as downright funny, and I dissolved into helpless giggles. Khartoum would indeed seem to be yet another of the big budget historical epics that were a major part of the actor’s career, but in a way the film is quite different from some of his other outings, in both positive and negative ways. Heston was always a bit of a wooden actor (or a “martinet” as the commentary track on this Blu-ray states), but here, essaying the historical role of General Charles Gordon, Heston does rather nuanced and appealing work, even if the film’s version of Gordon strays rather notably from the actual record. In other ways Khartoum is too talky for its own good, with long sections of exposition delivered in various elegantly monotone voices by a coterie of British character actors. That leaves Laurence Olivier, who seemed to have a habit of appearing in so-called “Egyptian” makeup during this period (Othello was released just a bit prior to Khartoum), to chew the scenery rather rabidly as Muhammed Ahmad, who was the self- appointed Mahdi, a title signifying a leader prophesied by Mohammed (the founder of Islam). (Christians might think of this along the lines of Jesus having prophesied that he would return some day—as another person.) Khartoum is an incredibly handsome film, but it’s a strangely dispassionate one, especially when one considers that the impending collision of religious cultures that provides much of the subtext for the film is so rife with dramatic possibilities.

Part of what might make Khartoum such a hard sell for American audiences is the unabashed ignorance of some (myself included) when it comes to epochal historical events of other nations. Probably few modern people really have a grasp on who General Gordon was, and certainly even fewer would be able to properly identify the importance of the Mahdi. Khartoum does what it can to bring the viewer up to speed with the basic elements of the plot, beginning the film with a spectacular sequence that depicts the devastation of a huge Egyptian army led by a British commander, at the hands of the Mahdi (Laurence Olivier). Probably the only thing the British hate more than losing a battle is losing face, and there’s considerable embarrassment that “savages” could have so badly defeated an army (albeit an indigenous one) commanded by a Brit. The Prime Minister (Ralph Richardson) decides to send the imperious and impetuous General Gordon (Charlton Heston) to Khartoum in order to make peace with the Mahdi (within reason, of course).

And it’s here where Khartoum both becomes very interesting but where it also perhaps misses the cinematic boat (no pun intended, considering how Gordon gets to Khartoum). Robert Ardrey’s screenplay does a fairly good job explicating how eccentric Gordon is, and how the decision to send him there plays into various politico’s hands in perhaps unexpected ways, especially since Gordon was known to “go rogue”. That immediately sets up a very involving development where we’re never quite sure how the English powers that be are going to react to Gordon’s unorthodox methods of dealing with both the Mahdi and a teeming population of Egyptians which faces decimation in Khartoum.

Where Ardrey perhaps doesn’t fully explore the really fascinating subtext of the actual historical record is in really delving into Gordon’s own religious fanaticism, which was of course grounded in Christianity. The dialectic between Islam and Christianity has only become more and more central to the modern day world than it even was in 1966 when the film premiered, but there’s a rather rote approach to Gordon in this film, which never really gets into a “warts and all” examination, at least as far as it might have. Gordon is instead portrayed as a kind of slightly flawed hero who tries to stave off an impending disaster in Khartoum, which the Mahdi means to invade at any cost.

Khartoum has a lot of flavor and is often stunningly gorgeous to watch, but it’s dramatically rather inert. Part of this might be due to the fact the Olivier, who was evidently busy when principal filming was underway, did his frankly too few scenes in London at the end of the shoot. The film would have been much more compelling had the Mahdi had a more central on screen role. This is actually one of Heston’s better performances, for my money, though his British accent is highly variable. He manages to bring both a steely reserve and at times a kind of surprising vulnerability to this single minded General who became a martyr to the already dying British Empire.

Khartoum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Khartoum is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.74:1 (our specs above need to be updated and will be soon). This is a near perfect looking transfer that boasts impeccable fine detail, lush and accurate looking color, and a crisp image that has absolutely no artifacting or compression issues. So why "only" 4.5 stars? There are some recurrent density issues that eagle-eyed viewers will spot, especially in the opening "travelogue" sequence, but also occasionally later, that are especially apparent when the frame is filled with a bright blue sky, which therefore tends to flicker rather dramatically in the background. It's actually fairly distracting in the early going, but mitigates substantially as the film proceeds. The Ultra Panavision 70 process provides exceptional depth of field which is exploited magnificently in the film, and this new high definition presentation makes things like far off soldiers or camels, which were basically nothing much more than blobs of color on the DVD, suddenly bristle with detail.

Khartoum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Khartoum is presented with "only" a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix, which Nick Redman avers was the only thing available, though recent reportage seems to indicate (rightly or wrongly) that fairly recent 70mm screenings of Khartoum contained the original 6 track mix. What's here may not have the depth and separation that would have really brought the battle scenes (and Frank Cordell's score) fully to life, but taken on its own merits, it's really rather vivid sounding, with excellent, full bodied support over all frequency ranges. The track has no damage to report and while audiophiles will no doubt wonder why a 5.1 mix (or at least a 4.0 mix) couldn't have been sourced properly for the release, there shouldn't be any other major complaints with what's on the disc.

Khartoum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary. Twilight Time has perhaps become aware that one of the chief complaints consumers have lobbed at the label has been the supposed absence of value added supplements on many of their releases. (As a film score aficionado, I'd argue that the label's dedication to isolated scores on most of their releases is to be commended, but evidently I'm in the minority with this opinion.) Therefore, most of Twilight Time's recent slate of releases have featured commentaries helmed by Twilight Time's Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo, with occasional "guest stars". In this case it's screenwriter Lem Dobbs (Dark City), who is quite knowledgeable about the film and its screenwriter Robert Ardrey (Dobbs rightly mentions Ardrey's Thunder Rock as the writer's best known play, but I guess I'll have to forgive Mr. Dobbs for not mentioning that Frances Farmer starred in Thunder Rock on Broadway, and yes, that's a joke.) This is on the whole a very informative and enjoyable commentary, though there are occasional odd comments. For example, Redman doesn't seem to know about the Cinerama label being utilized on "single lens" films after the original three panel process had fallen into disfavor, though there are a number of high profile such titles, all shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and bearing the Cinerama imprimatur, including It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Greatest Story Ever Told. Even later, with some Super Panavision 70 shot features, Cinerama's label continued to be applied to such epochal "single lens" films as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Redman also mentions that the original 6 track audio from the film's 70mm presentation could not be found, which seems at least a little odd in that it's been fairly widely reported that recent theatrical engagements of Khartoum in 70mm featured the original 70mm audio mix.


• MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (1080p; 2:06). Rather oddly (and in what might indicate a minor authoring error), when I supposedly played this extra on my PS3, it simply played the actual Khartoum trailer. On my PC Blu-ray drive, it correctly "found" this celebration of MGM's 90th annivesary.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:09)


• Isolated Score is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0), evidently culled from the Frank Cordell Estate's private tapes (Redman discusses this in the commentary). I have a kind of personal soft spot for Cordell, for I love both Khartoum and Cromwell, though I also recognize his compositional abilities don't quite rise to the level of some of the more storied names from this era of film. (Some of Cordell's easy listening and jazz inflected albums are a real joy to listen to, and at least a few them are available on Vocalion and come with my personal recomendation.) This is a boisterous score full of some invigorating melodies. There's a great soundtrack CD available from Film Score Monthly, for those so inclined.

Khartoum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Khartoum is not in the top tier of historical epics, and pretending otherwise is probably a losing proposition. This is not to say the film doesn't have its own peculiar pleasures, for it certainly does. Olivier and Heston are excellent, and the scenery is often stunning. But the film really could have been a much more explicit investigation into religious fanaticism of all kinds—though that kind of exegesis would have probably seemed quite foreign to a 1966 audience. The technical merits of this Blu-ray are top notch, even without a surround track, and Khartoum comes Recommended.