In 1883
Sudan, an army of 10,000 poorly trained but well-armed
Egyptian troops is lured into the desert. Commanding the force is former
Bombay Army soldier
Colonel William "Billy" Hicks (
Edward Underdown), now a private individual paid by the Egyptian government. Hicks' army
is defeated by native tribesmen led by
Muhammad Ahmed (
Laurence Olivier), a
Nubian religious leader of the Samaniyya order who has declared himself
Mahdi. The Mahdi's forces kill the troops and capture the weapons. British Prime Minister
William Ewart Gladstone (
Ralph Richardson), does not wish to send any military forces to Khartoum but is under great pressure, mostly from the British press, to "avenge" the death of Hicks, a hero of previous colonial conflicts. He could send colonial military hero Major General
Charles George Gordon (
Charlton Heston) who has strong ties to Sudan, having tried to break the slave trade there, but Gladstone distrusts him. Gordon has a reputation for strong and eccentric religious beliefs, and following his own judgement regardless of his orders.
Lord Granville (
Michael Hordern), the Foreign Secretary, knows this; he tells Gladstone that by sending Gordon to Khartoum, the British government can ignore all public pressure to send an army there. Should Gordon ignore his orders, the government can absolve themselves of any responsibility over the area. 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 city's savior upon his arrival in February 1884. He begins organising the defences and rallying the people, despite Stewart's protests that this is not what he was sent to do. Gordon's first act is to visit the Mahdi in his insurgent camp, accompanied by only a single servant. He gains the Mahdi's respect and, in the verbal fencing at the
parley, discovers that the Sudanese leader intends to make an example of Khartoum by taking the city and killing all its inhabitants. The
River Nile city of Khartoum lies at the
confluence of the
White Nile and the
Blue Nile. A qualified
military engineer, Gordon wastes no time upon his return in digging a ditch between the two to provide a protective moat. In Britain, Gladstone, apprised of how desperate the situation has become, orders Gordon to leave, but, as he had feared, his command is ignored. Colonel Stewart is sent by Gordon to London to explain the situation in Khartoum. Over the next several months, a public outcry forces Gladstone to send a relief force, but he sees to it that there is no urgency, hoping to the last that Gordon will come to his senses and save himself. Gordon, however, has other ideas. News arrives in Khartoum about a relief force led by
General Wolseley being sent from Britain. When the waters recede in winter, drying up his moat, the small Egyptian army is finally overwhelmed by 100,000 native Mahdist tribesmen. On 26 January 1885, the city falls under a massive frontal assault. Gordon himself is slaughtered along with the entire foreign garrison and populace of some 30,000, although the Mahdi had forbidden killing Gordon. In the end, Gordon's head is cut off, stuck on top of a long pole, and paraded about the city in triumph, contrary to the Mahdi's injunctions. The British relief column arrives two days too late. The British withdraw from the Sudan shortly thereafter, and the Mahdi himself dies six months later. In the United Kingdom, public pressure, and anger at the fate of Gordon, eventually forces the British and their Egyptian allies to
re-invade the Sudan ten years later, and they recaptured and colonised Khartoum in 1898. ==Cast==