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Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

edwagreen Female presence is sadly lacking in this 1966 drama.Unlike in "The Ten Commandments," Charlton Heston can't perform any miracles in this film, a poor-take off "Lawrence of Arabia."Laurence Olivier is completely unrecognizable in his strong portrayal of the radical Mahdi, who sees visions from the prophet Mohammad to conquer Egypt and subdue the people along with those of the Sudan.The battles are nicely shown. The meeting between Gordon and the Mahdi never historically took place. How Gordon (Heston) could say at such a meeting that the two men are alike was simply ridiculous. Politics does play a central role in the film with Prime Minister Gladstone unwilling to commit British forces into the battle, and ready to place the blame on the stubborn Gordon should his attempts fail.

robertguttman Considering recent events in Afghanistan (the Taliban) as well as in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), the events in the Sudan in the 1880s are resonate remarkably today. Once again the world finds itself confronted with Muslim fanaticism, and once again, seemingly, the world replies with little more than "gestures".This movie has been appreciated rather less than it deserves, probably due to the presence of Charlton Heston in the lead role. His English accent does leave something to be desired, especially when surrounded by such notable British actors as Richard Johnson, Nigel Green and the great Ralph Richardson. I won't even mention Sir Laurance Olivier in that regard since, in his remarkable performance as The Mahdi, he rendered himself almost unrecognizable.The one indispensable aspect Charlton Heston does bring to this film is his remarkable ability to stand out in an epic scene as few other actors can. When one produces an epic motion picture, the sort filmed on a grand scale with a cast of thousands, it is imperative that the central character should be the sort who can stand out among the multitudes. Few actors have been able to do that the way Charton Heston could. It was no accident that he was repeatedly cast as characters such as Moses, Ben Hur, El Cid, Chinese Gordon, etc.However, in spite of the epic scale and the cast of thousands, "Khartoum" is a battle of wills between three powerful individuals. The first is The Mahdi, a militant Muslim religious fanatic. The second was William Gladstone, the British Prime Minster who tried vainly to keep steer his country away from what he perceived as a disastrous foreign military entanglement in Africa. The third was General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, the unconventional soldier sent, as a gesture, by Gladstone to try to save the situation in the Sudan. It's a compelling story, and one that still resonates today more than ever. After seeing Khartoum, one can only hope that history doesn't repeat itself.

Jakester If you watch this film with modest expectations, you will probably like it fairly well. It's not "Lawrence of Arabia," not even in the same ballpark; I mention this because I think "Khartoum" got made because of the success of "Lawrence" a couple of years earlier. (Both films depict obsessed and quite weird Brits in the desert.)"Khartoum" is much too flat and talky, but it definitely has its moments. Olivier's performance as the Mahdi is stunning, unforgettable, filmdom's greatest depiction ever of a radical Islamic fundamentalist who's convinced he can rule the world. The performance is actually far more relevant today than in 1966, when it probably struck many viewers as quaint, an artifact of a bygone era. I don't know if Larry got an Oscar nomination for his work here; if not, shame on the Academy.The battle sequence at the end is good but it's over far too quickly - the whole darn movie points toward it, and then boom, it's done in maybe 10 minutes - it could have been stretched out to twice as long. (I suppose the filmmakers were more interested in historical accuracy than in dramatic zest; this is often a mistake in films.) The spoken words at the very end are spine-chillingly inspiring if you've got a romantic bent; if you're a hard-headed political realist, they probably will strike you as cheesy. I consider myself a romantic realist so I sorta liked 'em. If you get interested in Gordon (the Charlton Heston character), Lytton Strachey wrote a classic profile of him in "Eminent Victorians" that you might enjoy reading. One more word about Olivier's performance. It strikes some people as hammy and over-the- top. In fact, the Mahdi himself was hammy and over-the-top in the manner of people who (a) believe they are anointed by God and (b) wish to lead superstitious and susceptible warriors into battle and need to generate a certain awe. The Mahdi was an actor as much as anything. Olivier perfectly captures this quality.

Karl Self The first half of Karthoum blew me away -- it's such a bold, gigantic, majestic movie with Texas-sized images. Unfortunately it lagged in the second half and became repetitive, the "pale English actor posing as inscrutable Muslim via pancake makeup and overdone accent"-shtick became obnoxious, and it ended as a one-sided glorification of "Chinese" Gordon. Shame. I had also hoped to learn more about this long-forgotten but very modern conflict, but I was disappointed.Karthoum was done a few years after the superior Lawrence Of Arabia, and it clearly pales a bit by comparison. Still, it is always, if not educational, then at least entertaining. This might have been Charlton Heston's best role, because he is allowed to act his dream persona -- gun in one hand, bible in the other, "A Hundred Colourful Ways Of Telling Your Enemy To Scoot in Arabic"-book in the third, facing the insidious enemy with his broadest and hairiest chest.