Dark of the Sun (1968)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
British commando, Captain Curry (Rod Taylor), is hired by President Ubi (Calvin Lockhart) of war-torn Congo, to steal $50 million in uncut diamonds from a time-locked vault before the separatist Simba army that's fighting Ubi's forces and the UN peacekeepers overruns the remote town where the bank that holds the vault is located. Curry teams up with his friend Ruffo (Jim Brown), Doctor Wreid (Kenneth Moore), who's an alcoholic, and Henlein (Calvin Lockhart), a sadistic Nazi who left Germany after WWII to work as a mercenary. The mercenaries reach the town by Ubi's train after surviving an attack from the UN peacekeepers, only to find a number of terrified Westerners who were driven out from their homes by force, including torture, rape and murder, by the Simba rebels. They agree to help them leave town and befriend one of them, a pretty widow called Claire (Yvette Mimieux) whose husband was murdered by the rebels. As their mission nears completion everything suddenly goes horribly wrong and the story culminates in an orgy of sadistic graphic violence as Henlein betrays the group and the rebels arrive to brutalize and slaughter the whites. However, Curry still plans to complete his mission no matter what. - Actors:
- Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Jim Brown, Kenneth More, André Morell, Olivier Despax, Guy Deghy, Bloke Modisane, Calvin Lockhart, Alan Gifford, David Bauer, Murray Kash, John Serret, Danny Daniels, Alex Gradussov, Paul Jantzen, David Lomas, Monique Lucas, Emery J. Ujvari
- Directors:
- Jack Cardiff
- Producers:
- George Englund
- Writers:
- Ranald MacDougall, Adrian Spies, Wilbur Smith
- Aka:
- The Mercenaries
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (1) of Dark of the Sun
Sweat, Swagger, and Some Moral Baggage - Dark of the Sun review by griggs
I didn't expect Dark of the Sun to hit quite this hard — turns out there's a chainsaw duel in here that more than earns its reputation.
Rod Taylor leads a ragtag mercenary outfit through the Congo on a diamond run, hauling along an ex-Nazi for muscle and a fair bit of moral baggage. It's Boys' Own adventure with sweat and swagger, and Taylor plays it dry enough that the sarcasm never feels forced.
To be fair, nobody gets an easy ride here — mercenaries and rebels alike get shown capable of real cruelty, which saves it from tipping into straightforward hero worship.
The trouble is the film leans on that cruelty far too hard. A torture sequence drags on well past the point of making its case, and a scene involving two children left me wincing rather than moved.
Decent, scrappy adventure with rougher edges than expected. It makes you work harder for it than it probably should.