Dark of the Sun (1968)

Director: Jack Cardiff

Starring: Rod Taylor, Jim Brown, Yvette Mimieux

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Brutes! Savages! Heroes! ...Paid to fight in the fury of the Congo!

Plot: A band of mercenaries led by Captain Curry travel through the Congo across deadly terrain, battling rival armies, to rescue $25 million in uncut diamonds and possible dozens and dozens of innocent civilians.



My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? And how.

Here's our introduction to Rod Taylor's character, Captain Curry:


Curry and Ruffo (Jim Brown) get off a plane and approach two UN guards.

UN Guard: Captain Hunsington, United Nations Peace Keeping Force. I'll take that gun of yours.

Curry: (very casually) Captain Curry, Congo Special Forces. No you won't.

BADASS! BADASS! BADASS! I instantly loved this guy and his character. I'm sold on the rest of this picture without seeing it yet. I've only seen Taylor in THE TIME MACHINE (1960) and THE BIRDS (1963) and I don't remember him much in either of them. But it has been probably twenty years since I've watched those films, too. I watched DARK OF THE SUN probably three months ago and since then I've been seeking out his films like the earlier reviewed THE DEADLY TRACKERS (1973).

This guy kicks ass. This movie kicks ass. With an intro like that to the main badass of the film you know you're in for something. Shortly after that Curry is in a bar when a reporter approaches him and starts asking pesky questions to which Curry replies, "Keep your mouth off me 'cause you're not in good enough shape." Sweetness.

There's a great scene between Curry and Doctor Wreid (who just LOVES the sauce) over a bottle of Scotch. The dialogue is priceless.

And it's incredibly violent for the era, too. Lots of people die - including women and children!!! Nice. I really recommend seeking this out and watching it but if you MUST know more then...

RAIDERS OF THE LOST SPOILERS...There's a remarkable scene where Curry's train has stopped for a breather. Henlein finds two small children nearby and brings them to the train to meet with Curry & Ruffo. The children explain they were just walking through the jungle and came upon them and thought they might have food. Curry tells Henlein to send them back into the jungle. Seconds later we hear the spray of a machine gun. The kids are dead!!! Henlein justifies his action by the fact that children are being used by the Simba and that they're mission may have been compromised. Curry's pissed. You know these two are going to come to blows at some point. TEMPORARY END OF SPOILERS...

Curry and Henlein get into one helluva fist fight later on and it feels real. Curry is a beast filled with rage and he means to kill Henlein by any means. You have GOT to see this movie.

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF SPOILERS...Toward the end of the film our heroes flee from their civilian pickup point just in the nick of time. The Simba rebels are closing in on their location. Curry and pals make it out. The Simba are firing at them using everything they've got. Eventually an explosive of some kind hits the train in a spot that separates the last passenger car making it roll back towards them. There's a bridge first and several people, knowing what's in store for them, leap from the train off the bridge to their death. One passenger has a pistol to his wife's head and is ready to pull the trigger if they fall into the hands of the Simba. You know it's not going to be pretty. These people are going to be slaughtered. Later that night Curry and his men make it back to that town to save the passengers including some of his men. What they find are the charred, still smoking bodies of the passengers strewn about the area. The Simba rebels are looting the town and celebrating like crazy. Inside a large hotel one of the captured mercenaries is taunted and eventually bent forwards over a billiard table and dozens of Simba close in to rape him. This movie's fucking brutal. END OF SPOILERS...YARRRR

"It's fuckin' ON now!!!"

This film is loaded with very tense scenes, wonderful dialogue, great acting, taut direction, a brilliantly brutal score (by Jacques Loussier), a compelling yet simple story and an extremely violent and in-your-face kind of action movie. I'm STUNNED this isn't out on DVD. I have a widescreen copy I recorded from Turner Classic Movies a while back. After watching I did some reading up on the film and it seems that this cut, despite the violence in it, is an edited version. I would love to own a copy of the uncut widescreen print. This film deserves a proper DVD release. If anyone has an uncut version PLEASE let me know. I'll make it worth your while.

Here's a last bit of dialogue from the end of the picture...

Ruffo: This nation's important to ME.

Curry: Why don't you write a national anthem and I'll salute when they play it!