REVIEW - Dark of the Sun (1968)

Dark of the Sun

UK / USA - 1968

Directed by - Jack Cardiff

Starring - Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Jim Brown

Color / 100 min / NR

Rod Taylor is Bruce Curry, a tough as nails mercenary for hire working for the Conogolese government to fight leftist insurgents during the Simba Rebellion of 1964/65. President Ubi tasks Curry with a dangerous mission to venture into isolated territory via steam train to rescue Europeans living in a town about to be attacked by the Simbas. A noble cause, although Curry quickly determines that his real job is to retrieve $50 million dollars worth of diamonds from a bank vault in the same town in order to appease Belgian interests in the Congo. In addition to a contingent of Congolese soldiers, Curry's team consists of his good friend Ruffo (Jim Brown), an Oxford educated Congolese turned soldier, Henlein (Peter Carsten), an ex-Nazi who proudly displays a Swastika necklace when he fights, and Doctor Wreid (Kenneth More), a brilliant medic yet miserable drunk charged with patching up the unit.

Being a big fan of mercenary war flicks like The Wild Geese, I'm somewhat irritated that I hadn't heard of Dark of the Sun until fairly recently. To be fair, it wasn't always the easiest film to get your hands on; it was only a few months ago that it was finally issued on DVD for the first time. Previously, one had to wade through various VHS edits with dodgy transfers or simply be lucky enough to have a local cable channel willing to run the movie at a 2 or 3 am timeslot. Dark of the Sun was lambasted upon its theatrical release as being far too violent and risque, which watching it today seems somewhat laughable. Yes, two young children are gunned down (off-screen), and yes, there are quite a lot of deaths from gunfire, knives, and explosions, but at no point does this film ever revel in the violence shown onscreen like an exploitation movie would. This is a movie giving the viewer a glimpse into the hells of war, the worst of humanity - nothing more, nothing less. Fact is, nowadays you could flip your television over to MTV and find something far more risque and offensive than what you'd see in a film like Dark of the Sun.

Wow. Just look at that scowl. I wouldn't want to fuck with this guy.

More famed as a cinematographer, Jack Cardiff had a varied career as a director, from serious, award baiting dramas like Sons and Lovers in 1960 to mad scientist horror B-movies like The Mutations in 1974 (starring the likes of Donald Pleasance and Tom Baker pre-Doctor Who). In the middle of this roller coaster directorial career was Dark of the Sun, at its core an action/adventure movie. Cardiff, by no means an expert at the genre, pulled off one of the finest efforts in the range. There's a real punch to the action scenes, and dramatic tension is added by underrated editor Ernest Walter (The Haunting), a man with a keen eye who also had a journeyman career in film. However, it's Cardiff's experience in dramas that helps push Dark of the Sun to the next level. You're made to care for the characters, and with the setting being the middle of a warzone, you fear that any one of them may bite it at any given moment.

The ensemble cast is top class - Peter Carsten is perfect as the repugnant ex-Nazi, who despite his flaws as a human being remains essential to the mission's success. Kenneth More is also fantastic as the drunken Dr. Wreid, and the script provides him with a poetic character arc that allows him the opportunity to redeem himself for all his sins. Jim Brown had silenced many of the critics who doubted that an ex-NFL player would make a good actor after his appearance in The Dirty Dozen the year prior. Dark of the Sun was one of many acting jobs that would be thrown Brown's way in the wake of The Dirty Dozen, and it couldn't have been an easy part to play. Ruffo is essentially the one decent guy in the entire movie; his main flaw is that he's too nice, especially to his jaded friend Curry. The two characters have a bond with one another that writers of buddy cop movies would give their reproductive organs to capture.

I just can't quit you, Ruffo.

And then there's the man himself, Rod Taylor. Some say this film is Taylor's finest performance, and I can't really disagree with that sentiment. Having transitioned to more tough guy roles over the years leading up to this film, Taylor found the ultimate badass in Curry. He's a man who has walked through hell, figuratively speaking, and lived to tell the tales. Curry has seen and done it all and has the world weariness about him to prove it. He doesn't necessarily enjoy his job anymore, but fighting is the only thing Curry knows and the only thing he's good at. The scenes capturing the philosophical debates between Curry and Ruffo, arguing about war and the state of the world, are just priceless. That's not to say Curry is all talk and no play, he's still able to disarm a motherfucker coming at him with a chainsaw and make the other guy look like a total pussy in the process (no spoilers there, cause you need to see this for yourselves if you haven't already).

If there's one weak link in the film, it's eye candy Yvette Mimieux. The actress herself does a fine job, it's just her character is fairly one-dimensional and somewhat unconvincing. Her character Claire is saved from a farmstead attacked by the Simbas along the way to the isolated town, and is then meant as something of a veiled love interest for Curry. One could argue that Curry and Ruffo already have enough spark together to create a smashing gay love story, but this is 1968, so the movie's not going there (even though Ruffo does tell Claire "he's worth it." when Claire is musing over whether or not to pursue Curry's favor further - talk about mixed messages, movie!). To be fair, the romance is fairly low key, there's no smaltzy kiss scene with swelling orchestral cues to be had, but it still bothered me that Claire was getting googly-eyed on Curry. Her husband had just died in the Simba attack on their farm, and she sure does get over her shock and mourning in a hurry. While I wouldn't begrudge my wife finding somebody else to settle with when I die, at least wait until my corpse is cold before putting the moves on another guy, know what I'm saying?

The flying Jeep-jump body attack. Outlawed in the WWE these days.

One final point worth mentioning is the score by Jacques Loussier. It's fucking gorgeous. I can't articulate it any better than that. Wait, hold on, let me try again. Jazzy, elegiac magnificence. Okay, that's slightly more adult of me. Regardless, it's a truly brilliant film score that perfectly sets the tone for the film. Loussier's work here is easily the equal of any top-notch film score from the 60's by the likes of Barry or Morricone or whomever you wished to name. Certain cues from Dark of the Sun's score were used in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which in addition to the casting of Rod Taylor in that film, were QT's nods of acknowledgement at this wonderful adventure movie.

And I can see why a guy like Tarantino would develop a love affair with a movie like Dark of the Sun. It has a certain charm and magic to it that you don't really get in the overproduced Hollywood blockbusters of today. It's really that good, and it's positively shocking that the film has languished in semi-obscurity for so long. Here's hoping it finds a new lease of life with the recent DVD release.

4.5 / 5