While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

The Mercenaries is set in the lawless brutal jungles of the Congo during a bloody civil war & starts as President Ubi (Calvin Lockhart) & Belgian diamond mining company owner Delage (Guy Deghy) hire American Congo Special Forces mercenary Captain Bruce Curry (Rod Taylor) & his Congo native partner Sergeant Ruffo (Jim Brown) to travel to a small town, save it's people from rebel Simba forces & also bring back $50 million worth of diamonds. Togethr with forty odd soldiers from 'Striker Blue Force' as protection the men travel across the Congo jungle by train but rebel forces & danger is never far away & having $50 million in diamonds also creates it's own problems as Captain Curry has to mastermind the rescue of innocent civilians as well as keep himself & his men alive...More commonly known under the title Dark of the Sun these days this British production was directed by famed Oscar winning English cinematographer Jack Cardiff who was actually the uncredited cinematographer on The Mercenaries & is a pretty good action adventure featuring plenty of heroes, villains, battle scenes, some nice jungle scenery, some moralistic preaching & a solid plot although it did leave me slightly cold for some reason. The script was based on the novel by Wilbur Smith which was called Dark of the Sun rather than The Mercenaries & by all accounts has significant differences although I have not read it. According to the IMDb diamonds aren't mined in the Congo so I guess authenticity wasn't high on the makers agenda despite being set in & around historically accurate events. The plot moves along at a decent pace, there's enough action & adventure to stop most viewers becoming bored & it's also a film that tries to have many messages & themes run & develop concurrently along with the story. From the likes of trust, friendship, redemption, the moral problems of war & Colonial rule, several themes revolving around racism & the exploration of several strikingly different mens motives for being who they actually are & why they are doing what they are doing. One good aspect is that the moral issues never really bog down the main story & are fairly well judged, sure by the end it might have spent a little bit too long on the drama aspects but not really at the expense of the action & I personally thought it was a well paced & well judged film never letting any one particular aspect overtake the film as a whole. Clocking in at around the 100 minute mark the film doesn't outstay it's welcome & it never becomes boring but for some reason it never really excited me, it never really drew me in or engaged me, the character's were broad stereotypes & I also thought it was a little predictable. The Mercenaries is good for sure but just how good will probably depend on the viewers tastes, I think most people would enjoy it (like me) but maybe not everyone would love it (like me).The Mercenaries actually looks terrific & was apparently shot on location in Jamaica, the jungle scenery is very nice, lush & exotic with director & cinematographer Cardiff making good use of the 2:35:1 Panavision frame & full widescreen is really the only way you should be watching this. For a fairly obscure film such as The Mercenaries a lot of time & effort seems to have been lavished on it, the sets, the action, the location filming & cast are very good & very polished. The action scenes are fun & suitably explosive, there is a bit of blood, a bit of torture at the end, a cool chainsaw fight & some bad language which all seem tame by 2008 standards but for a mainstream film way in 1968 this was probably quite shocking & graphic.The production values are high & the film looks really nice with good stunt work & effects. The acting is pretty good although not outstanding, Rod Taylor & Jim brown make likable heroes while the obligatory female love interest Yvette Mimieux has little to do.The Mercenaries is a good old fashioned action adventure film that I liked but didn't love, despite not being able to say exactly why there was something about it that left me a bit cold & detached. Good but not great.

The movie was well cast with tough Australian born Rod Taylor as the mercenary Captain Curry. Dressed appropriately in his Congo Auxiliary forces uniform right down to the rolex watch so common to special forces personnel in (at that time-late 60's) the Vietnam era. The action is good but sporadic. The conflict over the mission, what each character represented, and the ending are too diverse. The distractions with respect to asides within the movie were not necessary and made the film longer than necessary. The movie would have been better if they did not change the ending used in the Wilbur Smith novel. In the novel (as I recall) Capt. Curry and the the girl (Claire) went to live in Paris with some of the diamonds they recovered.

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.