Listen to Frank Cordell’s Ambitious Score to Khartoum (1966), the Epic Tale of Gen. Charles Gordon

 

 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

With the exception of the masterpiece/classic year of 1962,* the 1960s was a lousy decade for pictures.

However, one genre that produced several excellent pictures during that decade was of the British Empire’s battles in and around its colonies in primitive lands, and stories set in North Africa.

In Khartoum, Charlton Heston played Gen. Charles “Chinese” Gordon.

I saw this in a theater. Couldn't have been more than eight years old. All I remember is the death of Gordon, that Chuck Heston played him, and that Larry Olivier played the Moslem bad guy, who never blinked (I read that latter part later). That certainly wouldn't be permitted today!

There are traditional cinematic sounds of Araby; a little touch of Elgar begins at 4:15.

Other 1960s pictures of the genre included, most famously, Lawrence of Arabia (1962); A Boy Ten Feet Tall (1963); Guns at Batasi and Zulu (both 1964); Sands of the Kalahari and The Flight of the Phoenix (both 1965); and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968).

There were surely others, as well. What stands out, of the pictures I saw, was that I recall none of them portraying white men as intrinsically evil, or even the British Empire as such.
 

Synopsis
By garykmcd

After an Egyptian army, commanded by British officers, is destroyed in a battle in the Sudan in the 1880's, the British government is in a quandary. It does not want to commit a British military force to a foreign war but they have a commitment to protect the Egyptians in Khartoum. They decide to ask General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, something of a folk hero in the Sudan as he had cleared the area of the slave trade, to arrange for the evacuation. Gordon agrees but also decides to defend the city against the forces of the Mahdi - the expected one - and tries to force the British to commit troops.


*1962

Lawrence of Arabia
To Kill a Mockingbird
Ride the High Country
The Manchurian Candidate
Lonely are the Brave
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
How the West was Won
Long Day’s Journey into Night
The Longest Day
Gypsy
The Music Man


Khartoum Soundtrack Suite (Frank Cordell)
 


 

 
Published on Jan 3, 2015 by Soundtrack Fred
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1966). Composed and Conducted by Frank Cordell.

Please note that the rights belong to the owner. Support the publishing company by buying the product, if possible, to get the full listening experience. Enjoy!

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Music Awards:
- None

Playlist:
-00:00 = "Overture"
-02:25 = "Prologue"
-04:10 = "Gordon Meets Gladstone"
-05:11 = "Up The Nile"
-06:07 = "Intermission Music"
-07:40 = "Gordon Enters The Mahdi's Camp"
-08:10 = "The Cattle Raid"
-09:43 = "Prelude To Battle"
-10:26 = "Death Of General Gordon"
-12:07 = "End Title / Exit Music"

Music Source:
Film Score Monthly FSMCD Vol. 7, No. 2

More Information:

http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/ca...

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