DARK OF THE SUN

US/UK, 1968, 102 minutes, Colour.
Rod Taylor, Jim Brown, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Kenneth More, Andre Morrell, Calvin Lockhart.
Directed by Jack Cardiff.

Dark of the Sun is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith. Smith had a successful writing career over almost fifty years. During the 1960s and 1970s several film versions of his novels were made including Dark of the Sun as well as Shake Hands With The Devil, Gold and The Wilby Conspiracy. Smith is the major world-popular novelist on African issues.

The film is set in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1960s. In retrospect, it is interesting to look at this perspective on Africa and the battles for African independence, especially in the hindsight of the history of the period as well as the history of the subsequent decades. Listening to some of the dialogue, one realises that many things have not altered in some of the African countries over forty years. From 1997 onwards the newly-established Democratic Republic of Congo had the civil war which killed more people than in any other war since World War Two.

Rod Taylor was a popular leading figure in Hollywood in the late 1950s and during the 1960s. He appeared in some memorable films including Wedding Breakfast, Raintree County as well as Hitchcock’s The Birds. Yvette Mimieux appeared with him in The Time Machine. There is a cameo role for Kenneth More, towards the end of his career, before he suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.

The film was directed by veteran cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, responsible for such classics as Black Narcissus. He also directed Rod Taylor in a collaboration with John Ford for Young Cassidy.

The film has some strikingly violent sequences, images of African soldiers, high on drugs and alcohol, going berserk, with violence and rape. (Also images in some countries of Africa and civil wars in the ensuing decades.)

Of interest as an action adventure of the 60s, a glimpse into perspectives by film-makers on Africa, interesting in view of African history and the work of Wilbur Smith.

1.The title, its significance, symbolism? An alternate title was The Mercenaries.

2.The African location settings, the cities and towns, the countryside, the beauty and ruggedness? The action sequences? Effects? The train, the crashes? The musical score and its atmosphere?

3.Africa in the 1960s, the independence movements? Congo and its history? Colonial history? The emerging leaders? Dictators? Freedom fighters? The militia? The use of mercenaries? The presence of the United Nations troops? Codes of war – and the breaking of the codes?

4.The mercenaries, their being used in Africa? The nations they came from? The Americans? The money, idealism, practical, cynicism?

5.Congo, the president, his leadership, his need for arms and money? The diamonds? The presence of the United Nations? The turmoil on the streets of the capital, the overturned cars, burnt-out buildings? The people fleeing to the airport to escape? The arrival of the plane? Curry and Rufo and the president? The mission?

6.Curry, his personality, his background? The reason for his being in Africa? Getting through the soldiers and the airport? Paid by the president? His conditions for the mission? With Rufo, their strategies? Getting the whisky and plying the doctor to get him to come? Henlein and his Nazi background, the swastika, getting him to come with the crack troops? Their learning about the diamonds?

7.Getting the train ready, the beginning of the expedition, the visuals of the train going through the countryside? The dangers, the plane, the bombardment, the plane crashing? In the tunnel? Going to the rescue of the refugees? Claire, her hysterics?

8.The continuing of the journey, Claire and her relationship with Curry? Calming down? The background of the others in the Congo, the expatriates?

9.The diamond merchant, the adviser of the president? The merchant in the town, getting the diamonds? The dangers?

10.The rebel soldiers, the attack on the train, the crash of the engine, the breaking up of the lines? The taking of the diamonds? The merchant and his killing his wife and himself?

11.The escape from the train, the soldiers, Claire and the refugees, hiding?

12.Curry, Rufo and the plan to go into the town, the drunken soldiers, the drugs, the brutality, the young officer and his initial cowardice, Curry making demands of him, his being captured, the rape? The missionaries, the attack by the soldiers? Chaos and mayhem?

13.Rufo and his carrying Curry through the hotel, getting the diamonds, the guns, Henlein and his getting the trucks? The escape – despite the crashes and the explosion of the fuel tanker?

14.Gathering the refugees together, getting them in the trucks? The lack of petrol? Curry and his decision to go, the officer and his mistrust, going with him? Claire and her overhearing, getting Curry to trust Rufo?

15.Rufo, his being a Congolese man, his patriotism, his work for the president, his education background – and the snubs by the racist journalists at the beginning? His loyal support for Curry? Carrying him through the hotel? The drive, the importance of his speech about ideals, about cynicism, about feelings? About patriotism and the emerging nations? The pathos of Henlein killing him?

16.Henlein, his troops, the Nazi attitudes, his swastika, the shooting of the young children so that they wouldn’t report back to the rebels? Curry telling him to wear his swastika? His participation in the mission, getting the trucks? His wanting the diamonds, killing Rufo, going down the rapids, Curry in pursuit, the fight with Curry?

17.Curry, his grief at Rufo’s death, the truck and his pursuit of Henlein, the chase, the fight, hanging on the vines? His throttling him – and his killing him? The officer watching, his disdain, his denouncing this kind of revenge? Curry and his decision to hand himself in to the court martial?

18.Claire, Henlein trying to kill her? Her support of Curry?

19.Wilbur Smith’s perspective on Africa, the combination of politics with the action adventure? As viewed from hindsight, from the history of Africa in the last decades of the 20th century?