Khartoum (film)

Khartoum is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden. It stars Charlton Heston as British Gen. Charles Chinese Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmed and is based on historical accounts of Gordons defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army during the Siege of Khartoum.

In 1883, in the Sudan, a force of 10,000 poorly trained Egyptians under the command of British Col. William Billy Hicks Edward Underdown is lured into the desert and slaughtered by Muslim zealots led by Muhammad Ahmad Laurence Olivier, a fanatic Sudanese Arab who believes he is the Mahdi, the prophesied expected one of Mohammed. The British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone Ralph Richardson, who does not wish to send more military forces to Khartoum, is under great pressure to send military hero Major General Charles George Gordon Charlton Heston there to salvage the situation and restore British prestige. Gordon has strong ties to Sudan, having broken the slave trade there in the past, but Gladstone distrusts him. Gordon has a reputation for strong, if eccentric, religious beliefs and following his own judgement, regardless of his orders. Granville LevesonGower, 2nd Earl Granville, the British foreign secretary Michael Hordern, knowing this, tells Gladstone that by sending Gordon to Khartoum, the British government can ignore all public pressure to send an army there, and absolve themselves of any responsibility over the area if Gordon ignores his orders. Gladstone is mildly shocked at the suggestion, but as it is popular with the public and Queen Victoria, he adopts it for the sake of expediency.Gordon is told that his mission, to evacuate troops and civilians, is unsanctioned by the British government, which will disavow all responsibility if he fails. He is given few resources and only a single aide, Colonel J. D. H. Stewart Richard Johnson. After an attempt to recruit former slaver Zobeir Pasha Zia Mohyeddin fails, Gordon and Stewart travel to Khartoum, where Gordon is hailed as the citys savior upon his arrival in February 1884. He begins organising the defences and rallying the people, despite Stewarts protests that this is not what he was sent to do. ........

Source: Wikipedia