GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

AaronCapenBanner Jack Cardiff directed this hard-hitting & sharp-edged action adventure that stars Rod Taylor as mercenary Captain Curry, who is hired to travel to the Congo to retrieve a bunch of priceless uncut diamonds. Trouble is, the area is besieged by revolution and inhumane conditions, requiring the evacuation of all westerners from a fate worse than inevitable death. One of them, a beautiful woman named Claire(former "The Time Machine" costar Yvette Mimieux) will become involved with Curry, whose steely will is tested by an unexpected loss, pushing him close to the edge of savagery... Highly exciting and at times harrowing film is not always easy to sit through, but any objections are overlooked because of the skill and boldness of the storytelling displayed here.

edwagreen Is this the Belgian Congo erupting in revolution circa 1960? The picture isn't exactly clear on that one.Rod Taylor plays a mercenary caught up in the fracas. We never fully understand the rebels or the government in this situation.There is a tremendous amount of brutality here. The main line of the film comes when the German mercenary shoots down two young children as he felt that they were messengers for the rebels. Rod Taylor's response to him was: "You can put back your Swastika. You earned it."Yviette Mimieux is the hysterical young lady picked up by Taylor and his crews. There are unbelievable massacre scenes where countless civilians are slaughtered.Of course, greed enters the picture here. The ending is questionable because Taylor did us a favor regarding the German mercenary.

dirk275 Civil war in the Congo is the backdrop for this great adventure flick. Curry(Rod Taylor) is a soldier for hire. Along with his sidekick Ruffo(Jim Brown) they assemble an army to bring a small group of people as well as 50 million in diamonds to safety in only three days. Along with them is Henlein(Perter Carsten) and 40 of his men. After an attack from a U.N. plane they pick up Clair(Yvette Mimieux). Her husband? was killed and she barely escapes with her life. Later adventures involve a chainsaw fight as well as a tense period, while waiting for a safe to open. Simbas attack them and the diamonds as well as rescued people are lost. Curry and Ruffo devise a plan to recover the diamonds which works out. After the diamonds are recovered, Curry goes on a mission to get fuel. While he is away, Henlein kills Ruffo. Curry returns, hunts down Henlein and kills him. After some reflection, he submits to a future court martial proceeding at which time the movie ends.The plot is a straightforward one. If you liked the Dirty Dozen or Von Ryan's Express then this one is for you. What makes this film so great is the intense,brutal action and the characters involved. Rod Taylor doesn't just act his role, he attacks it with flair and style. He is a very capable leading man and he shows it here. He portrays Curry as tough, witty, sometimes brutal, but sometimes humane.Jim Brown plays Ruffo, and while Brown is no great actor, his presence alone fills the screen. Ruffo may be the only true good man in the movie. He doesn't do it for the money but for pride in his country.The polar opposite of Ruffo is Henlein. A former Nazi, he is inhumane. He kills two children(off screen thankfully). He also tries to kill Curry and does kill Ruffo before Curry gives him what he deserves. Peter Carsten plays him to the hilt and the fact that you hate Henlein so much is a testament to Carsten's ability.My only real criticism of the film is Clair. Let me preface all of this by saying that I think Yvette Mimieux is a good actress and awesome to look at but Clair isn't given enough to do. She has a very good scene at a small field hospital where she stands up to Curry and a drunken doctor when a woman needs medical care, but there isn't enough of that type of dialogue for her. She seems relegated to the background for most of the movie. Still, she's a real beauty and I love gazing at her hotness.Lots of other actors make this movie great and I really recommend it. It's gory and brutal but not gratuitously so. The violence is what we'd expect in a civil uprising. To me, it should be considered up there with the best films of the genre.

verbusen Take one part Von Ryan's Express, one part Wild Geese, one part The Road Warrior, and one part Dogs Of War and you get a kick butt flick called Dark Of The Sun! I'm at my job and to my great fortune I tuned to TCM Europe and caught this in its entirety, I was pretty blown away. I can just imagine the response the movie going public of 1968 America had, with race riots and MLK Jr's assassination and all, they probably really hated it. The movie depicts what I thought I was going to see in "Guns at Batasi", Africans revolting violently against unarmed Euro White civilians in the heart of Africa. They definitely do not to my knowledge (unless possibly a South African movie), make many movies that show the scenes that this movie presents. White on Black hate, yes those are made, but not the other way around. I was not all that interested in this at first but it definitely got a whole lot better when they get the diamonds, I got off my far away seat and got real close to the TV, the scenes were just totally unexpected. I thought they were going to get away, ala a 1950's Clark Gable/John Wayne adventure (which are great also), but when I saw that caboose get separated and then it started rolling backwards I said, now thats something to watch! It's totally Wild Geese doomsday mission from that point on, except its a a hell of a lot bloodier. BTW, those are my favorite action movies, where all hell breaks loose and the "good guys" take a lot of casualties, much more edge of your seat that way! The only thing that I guess kept this from a restricted rating was at the time they didn't have one yet, this movie may have been a mover to placing ratings on movies because they came out shortly afterward, I mean it's that action and graphic packed. The ending is overlong with it's morality play but it's worth watching just for the town scene when the mission starts to go horribly wrong. Here's a spoiler, a white Afrikaner merc gets captured by the horde and is bent over a pool table without his pants, ummm if thats not hardcore I don't know what is (well, the white nun being raped was right up there also, and the white guy being doused with gasoline while being dragged from a motorcycle was also really brutal). I thought about The Road Warrior when I saw that part of the movie, it was probably inspired by this great unknown action flick, that was probably a little close to the truth on stuff that happened during the Congo's history. 9 of 10 very entertaining for action film viewers.