4月24日
Shedding Light on 'Dark of the Sun'
Over at
Screengrab, DK Holm offers many compelling reasons to watch Jack Cardiff's 1968 actioner "Dark of the Sun," a movie that also claims Quentin Tarantino as a fan.
Relaying his excitement Holm
wrote:
"Recently the old mercenary thriller 'Dark of the Sun' became readily available, and I was delighted. I can throw away the old pan-and-scan dub-of-a-dub VHS tape I've been watching for years and trying to get others to watch. Now I can immerse myself in its widescreen glories (with photography by Edward Scaife, while the film was directed by DP-turned-occasional helmer Jack Cardiff), the sweaty bodies in the Congo, in the horrifying hoards, in Rod Taylor and Jim Brown's relaxed, quiet masculinity (both are underrated screen presences), in Yvette Mimieux's exotic, loyal fragility.
"Why 'Dark of the Sun?' I'm not sure, except that it is perhaps the greatest Saturday matinee movie ever made. Many of its components will be familiar to viewers with a memory that goes back to Stagecoach. There is the mission deep into enemy territory, but with a time limit. There is the noble warrior, the vulnerable love interest, the caustic villain in their midst, ready to betray. There is even the drunk doctor (Kenneth Moore) who has to deliver a baby. It may be derivative, but it may also be the text from which all subsequent action films were derived. Most of all, it is a train movie."
As a fan of Jim Brown, Rod Taylor and
the train movie, this all sounds good to me. Read the rest of Holm's spirited take
here.
--posted by Kim