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U.K.
- U.S.A.
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1968
Directed
by Jack Cardiff
Starring
Rod Taylor
Yvette Mimieux
Jim Brown
Color |
101 Minutes |
Not Rated
Format: DVD-R (NTSC)
Warner Archive Collection
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Music
from the film
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Main
Theme
MP3 format - 7.3 MB
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Review
by
Troy Howarth
Film:9
DVD:5
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| Tough-as-nails
mercenaries Curry (Rod Taylor) and Ruffo (Jim Brown) lead a dangerous
mission into the Congo to secure $50 million in diamonds... |
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After
establishing himself as one of the world's premiere cinematographers
— thanks in large part to his work on Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger's feverish Technicolor gems Black
Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes
(1948) — Jack Cardiff made the switch to directing in the early
1950s. His output as a director was comparatively sporadic — not
to mention minor — but he did make a few memorable pictures in
diverse genres. His 1960 smash Sons and
Lovers was arguably his biggest critical success, but in
terms of cult value, nothing comes close to Dark
of the Sun. This energetic, muscular, sometimes downright
nasty action film is a 'guy film' like few others, and has not
surprisingly been referenced by filmmaker/pop culture jukebox
Quentin Tarantino as a particular favorite — he even used a snatch
of the film's soundtrack in his recent hit Inglourious
Basterds (2009). |
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The
film stars Australian leading man Rod Taylor as the proverbial
mercenary with a heart of gold. Taylor is best remembered for
his appearances in George Pal's The Time
Machine (1960) and Alfred Hitchcock's The
Birds (1963), but he was never better than he was here.
Taylor clearly relishes the opportunity to play such a strong-willed
man of action, and he responds with a performance of genuine depth,
humor and humanity. He is well paired with NFL-great-turned-actor
Jim Brown (The Dirty Dozen, Black
Gunn), who plays the more conscience-oriented of the two
mercenaries. While Taylor's Curry is more-or-less in it strictly
for the money, Brown's Ruffo is driven by a sincere desire to
help his people. The two ideologies inevitably clash, upping the
film's dramatic ante considerably, but the warmth and affection
that exists between the two men helps to make Dark
of the Sun uncommonly touching in parts, as well. Taylor
and Brown have great chemistry, making one regret that they didn't
go on to do other pictures together. The supporting cast is headed
by lovely Yvette Mimieux, Taylor's Time
Machine love interest, who seems poised to fill a similar
function in this picture. Happily the film avoids bogging itself
down with a gratuitous love story (this is a 'guy film,' after
all!) and their relationship is very much of a 'what could have
been' variety. Mimieux doesn't actually have a lot to do, but
she does a capable job and holds her own in context. Kenneth More
(A Night to Remember) is terrific
in a fairly cliché role — the alcoholic medic who makes
good — while Peter Carsten (The
Sins of Madame Bovary, Zeppelin)
makes for one of the most utterly despicable villains in action
cinema history. Carsten's cold-blooded, by-the-book martinet comes
off as fairly vile right from the get-go, but by the end of the
picture the audience is truly rooting for him to get a well-deserved
comeuppance. Andre Morell (Plague of the
Zombies) and Calvin Lockhart (The
Beast Must Die) round out an excellent cast. |
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Given
Cardiff's background as a cinematographer, it comes as no surprise
that Dark of the Sun is a very handsome
production. Cinematographer Edward Scaife (with some uncredited
help from Cardiff himself) gives the film a gritty texture, but
the use of color and scenery is still very impressive. The use
of the wide frame helps to give the film an appropriately larger
than life look, as well. To say the film is fast paced is a bit
of an understatement — there is literally no fat on display here,
and the film moves fairly breathlessly towards its big action
set-pieces. Only some shoddy bluescreen work lets the film down
on occasion, but that is a minor complaint at best. Dark
of the Sun
is a classic of its genre and deserves to be far better known
by a wider audience. |
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| Warner
Bros. have finally issued Dark of the Sun
to DVD, albeit as part of their made-on-demand Archive Collection.
The program has taken a lot of flak for making use of DVD-R technology,
but let's put things into perspective —
the quality is still very good, and it's great that the film is
finally available, period. The 2.35/16x9 transfer looks very good
on the whole —
there's some dirt and print damage, especially during the opening
reel, but for the most part the image is sharp, colorful and relatively
blemish-free. There was some initial confusion about the disc
offering an abbreviated edit, but it does in fact run the whole
101 minutes. The mono English soundtrack is clean and clear, as
well; there are no issues with hiss or background noise to report.
The only extra is a theatrical trailer. 8/25/11 |
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