Simba

There are others on this site who can more aptly discuss the politics present in this film, so I won't do it.

"Simba" stars Dirk Bogarde, Virginia McKenna, and Donald Sinden. It is the story of an Englisman, Alan Howard (Bogarde) who visits his brother in Africa and learns that he has been murdered by the Mau Mau. He decides to stay and work his brother's farm and renew his relationship with Mary (McKenna), an old love who lives in Africa with her British parents. As the fighting goes on, prejudices on both sides are voiced, and Mary and Alan find themselves on opposite sides.

Though the acting is good, the movie is a mess for some technical reasons, not to mention the skewed viewpoint of the film. The producer and director were somehow under the impression that Jack Hawkins was going to star in the movie. Consequently, they filmed in Kenya using a double for Hawkins, who was six inches taller than Dirk Bogarde. While in Kenya, they used a tall blond man as a double for the police inspector, but when they returned to England, they couldn't match him up with anyone. When Donald Sinden walked into Pinewood Studios, he had his hair streaked for another film, and the producer asked him if he would dye his hair. Thus, he got the role.

The landscapes are beautiful, but one is aware that the actors weren't in Africa, and when they're on the screen, the landscapes are projections.

Simba is an interesting film, and as a fan of Dirk Bogarde, I'll watch him in anything, but this isn't a great movie.

This movie has just been issued on an R4 PAL disc available through Australian retailers so it's nice to see a pristine copy of it at last rather than a very well worn Beta tape. It has come in for some unfair criticism as a racist tract which it isn't at all. The good or bad old Colonial days existed, like it or not, and its just anachronistic to apply todays values to life some 50 years ago.The film makes the Mau Mau out to be the villains, the Hamas of their day,and so thought the settlers. Only the most prescient of them saw independence ahead; this is set several years before McMillan's Winds of Change speech. Rank stalwarts Borgade and McKenna give good performances as lovers and besieged farmers and Donald Sinden looks great as the local police chief. View it for what it is. We can't erase history, good or bad, like we can airbrush cigarettes from old photos.

I don't intend to review the film in its entirety, but rather discuss its treatment of race relations. There is little doubt that it was transgressive by the standards of its time, and, also, it was incredibly raw and often offensive in terms of rank racism, but it was also refreshingly honest and unvarnished. We saw the ugliness for what it was on all sides. We saw the complication. We saw how truly decent people could hold a variety of view and then change them for the better. Most importantly,we saw humanity. I don't think we can achieve that by sanitizing and political correctness. I am grateful that this film is available for viewing and consideration. Just the notion of an accomplished black doctor standing up to a white man in such an astonishing way circa 1955 was amazing. We didn't see anything like it until Sydney Poitier uttered his famous line, "They call me Mr. Tibbs."

Despite the noble attempts at even-handedness in handling racial conflicts in 1950s Kenya (Earl Cameron is a commanding presence as a pacifist, educated doctor), "Simba" still has a racist and imperialist point-of-view: most of the black characters indeed are, or are quick to become, "howling savages". If you can overlook that, it's a well-made piece of work, vividly photographed in Eastmancolor and with some tense suspense sequences. **1/2 ouf 4.

This movie may be accused of racism.Perhaps so.But you could also blame "stagecoach" and a lot of westerns before "broken arrow" as well :the Indians were the villains,just as the natives are here.Let's be serious!It was half a century ago and at the time the writers had not the hindsight we have today.The precedent user saw the movie through the eyes of the 2004 audience obviously the politically correct one.Judging by the rating,there are users who disagree and I'm one of them.

First of all,"Simba" is not poorly executed,it has a good screenplay,fine actors (Bogarde and Virginia McKenna),beautiful landscapes...That the Africans should be shown as primitive,cruel and mindless does not prevent some of them from becoming educated and wise:"I studied for six years ,the black doctor says,to save lives ,not to destroy them".Two years later in "something of value" ,Richard Brooks showed a native afraid of thunder!"Simba" is the British forerunner of Richard Brook's work.In "Simba" anyway ,the White are not necessarily the heroes.See how Bogarde refuses to shake hands with the doctor.And the last picture of the movie is a black child's face ,a curious choice for a would be racist flick.