Dark of the Sun (1968)

To me, this movie is perfection.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The acting in this movie is really good.

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.

(89%) A mostly forgotten gem of a film that truly deserves to be more widely seen as it doesn't even have an English region 2 DVD release, which is a travesty owing to the British talent involved. Rod Taylor is perfect playing a tough soldier-of-fortune with a good heart, likewise big Jim Brown as his sidekick and Ken More as the missions alcoholic doctor. If you can get hold of a region 1 copy, which probably won't be cheap, but it will be worth it, as this is one of the best war films ever made, with fantastic direction, gut wrenching tension and brutal action. A theatrical re-release would be a real treat as the film hasn't hardly aged at all.

A band of mercenaries led by Captain Curry 'Rod Taylor' star of Hitchcock's 'The Birds' venture through the Congo across deadly terrain, battling the deadly 'Simba' armies, to procure for the President million's in diamonds 'Dark of The Sun' is nothing short of excellent, it's up there with other classic Mercenary men on a mission film's such as 'Wild Geese' 'The Dogs of War' this film was ahead of it's time in terms of it's shockingly violent content it still stands out today, their is nothing that dates it, the violence is nothing short of brutal and does not glamorous war as hell, it's not hard to see why Quentin Tarrontino's rants and raves about this! it's available on DVD but given the current clime with lack of care typical of film companies 'Dark of The Sun' has been shamefully released without the appropriate fanfare.

Hi, I'm glad to see that so many people share my view of this great but unsung film but shame there are so many big factual errors. Someone said it's 'set in South Africa', another that it takes place during the 'Katanga revolt'. In fact it takes place in the second part of the Congo civil war, a completely separate conflict and long after the Katanga revolt had been crushed. In 1964, radical leftist followers of the assassinated President Lumumba began a revolt in NE Congo the area furthest removed from the capital, Leopoldville (Kinshasa) and nowhere near Katanga, which is south of the capital. It spread quickly until it reached Stanleyville (today Kisanghani). This is the period in which the film is set. The rebels were known as 'simbas', which means 'lions' and were driven on by witch doctors so they believed they were invulnerable to bullets, attacked govt units relentlessly spreading panic among the Congo army; a tactic which brought the Simbas early and spectacular success. The Congo govt of Tshombe (the failed rebel leader of the Katanga revolt) responded by recruiting mercenaries under 'Mad' Mike Hoare who had fought for him in Katanga. The Curry character is clearly based on Hoare. They were very successful in driving back the Simbas and liberating Stanleyville and many western hostages, documented in Hoare's book 'Congo Mercenary'. These true heroic events are the basis of the film not the Katanga revolt in which Hoare and his men had a much more sinister and 'mercenary' role. The mercenaries' bad reputation from this earlier is clearly referred to the scenes where Curry's clashes with the UN Officer and the journalist at the bar and this would have been well understood at the time.It was love at first sight when I saw the film: the combination of fast-paced action and grisly violence and enough intelligence and fact made a compelling combination. It came as a complete surprise to me when I caught it on TCM on a sizzling hot evening in summer 2003 and by luck I recorded it. The film is years ahead of its time: more like something you'd expect to see in the 70s. All the actors do a great job especially Taylor. The Jim Brown character is, by contrast, a politically correct fantasy. The title 'Dark of the Sun' is obviously a reference to Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' also sent in the Congo, and there are some similarities: the train being sucked deeper into the jungle to meet an unknown fate, where even 'civilized' westerners are turned into brutal savages in order to survive. I think Cardiff works this theme very well. He actually said some of the true stories of violence during the revolt had 'turned his stomach' so he toned it down in the film, but they are still fairly shocking. The scene of the train full of rescued Belgian civilians unexpectedly rolling back into the depot and into the hands of blood-thirsty Simbas is one of the creepiest moments on celluloid.In Germany, the film is erroneously called 'katanga' and interestingly the part where Peter Carsten as the Nazi mercenary (Henlein) summarily shoots two children as spies is cut. The Carsten character is based on an authentic German mercenary called 'Congo Müller' who fought alongside Hoare. He actually had an Iron Cross not a Swastika on his breast pocket. But Cardiff cleverly incorporates many of these well known facts and reports of the Congo mercenaries that both glamorized and demonized them at the same time. The characters and events would have been easily recognizable to audiences when the film was made. I've also read that Laurence Kabila the assassinated father of Congo's president was a Simba and that as a Ugandan army officer, Idi Amin was sent on a mission to train Simba rebels.