That was an excellent one.

Memorable, crazy movie

A Masterpiece!

Blistering performances.

I watched an excellent print on the weekend with a fellow Rod Taylor fan. It was a good choice as a tribute to Rod, reunited here with Time Machine co-star Yvette Mimieux. Jim Brown was excellent and Peter Carsten makes an imposing villain. Listen closely and I'm certain some of Peter's scenes are dubbed by Paul Frees (I'd know his voice anywhere). The film makes you think and there are some emotional scenes throughout. Kenneth More has a nice supporting role. The action scenes are well choreographed and some of the violent scenes leave more to the imagination than in your face blood shed. Certain scenes are cringe-worthy and leave an impact. There are nice touches of irony throughout.

During the "Congo Crisis" of the early 60's the town of Port Reprieve is cut off by rebel Simbas and a mercenary by the name of "Captain Bruce Curry" (Rod Taylor) is hired to take a small train and rescue the Europeans trapped there. But more importantly there is a cache of diamonds worth about $50 million which the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo wants even more. With Captain Curry is a trusted friend by the name of "Sergeant Ruffo" (Jim Brown) who advises him to take an ex-Nazi by the name of "Captain Henlein" (Peter Carsten) with them even though Captain Curry doesn't care for him at all. Along the way they pick up a young woman by the name of "Claire" (Yvette Mimieux) whose father has just been killed by the rebel Simbas. At any rate, rather than going over the entire story and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a pretty decent film for the most part. It boasts lots of action and good acting all around. One thing I should mention however is that there is one particular scene which is quite graphic in case any viewers might need to know. Be that as it may, this was a very entertaining movie and I rate it as above average.

One of the reasons "Dark of the Sun" is now considered a cult classic, why directors Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are unabashed fans of the film, is that underlying its relentless violence is an exploration of the moral and philosophical ambiguities of men on a dangerous mission."Dark of the Sun" is the third in a trio of collaborations between director Jack Cardiff and actor Rod Taylor. The three films, and the characters played by Taylor could not be more different, a testament to the range and talent of both. The first was "Young Cassidy", a study of the early life and career of Irish writer Sean O'Casey (introducing Julie Christie and the first of two pairings with Maggie Smith). The second was "The Liquidator", a clever and funny James Bond spoof in which Taylor plays Boysie Oakes, a mild-mannered womanizer mistaken by British Intelligence for a cold-blooded killer.Neither "Young Cassidy" nor "The Liquidator" has been released on DVD. Each, in its own way, is an outstanding film worthy of finding a wider audience.

Take one part Von Ryan's Express, one part Wild Geese, one part The Road Warrior, and one part Dogs Of War and you get a kick butt flick called Dark Of The Sun! I'm at my job and to my great fortune I tuned to TCM Europe and caught this in its entirety, I was pretty blown away. I can just imagine the response the movie going public of 1968 America had, with race riots and MLK Jr's assassination and all, they probably really hated it. The movie depicts what I thought I was going to see in "Guns at Batasi", Africans revolting violently against unarmed Euro White civilians in the heart of Africa. They definitely do not to my knowledge (unless possibly a South African movie), make many movies that show the scenes that this movie presents. White on Black hate, yes those are made, but not the other way around. I was not all that interested in this at first but it definitely got a whole lot better when they get the diamonds, I got off my far away seat and got real close to the TV, the scenes were just totally unexpected. I thought they were going to get away, ala a 1950's Clark Gable/John Wayne adventure (which are great also), but when I saw that caboose get separated and then it started rolling backwards I said, now thats something to watch! It's totally Wild Geese doomsday mission from that point on, except its a a hell of a lot bloodier. BTW, those are my favorite action movies, where all hell breaks loose and the "good guys" take a lot of casualties, much more edge of your seat that way! The only thing that I guess kept this from a restricted rating was at the time they didn't have one yet, this movie may have been a mover to placing ratings on movies because they came out shortly afterward, I mean it's that action and graphic packed. The ending is overlong with it's morality play but it's worth watching just for the town scene when the mission starts to go horribly wrong. Here's a spoiler, a white Afrikaner merc gets captured by the horde and is bent over a pool table without his pants, ummm if thats not hardcore I don't know what is (well, the white nun being raped was right up there also, and the white guy being doused with gasoline while being dragged from a motorcycle was also really brutal). I thought about The Road Warrior when I saw that part of the movie, it was probably inspired by this great unknown action flick, that was probably a little close to the truth on stuff that happened during the Congo's history. 9 of 10 very entertaining for action film viewers.