Simba

Dirk Bogarde, poorly regarded brother of a Kenyan farmer, comes to Kenya to find his brother killed by the savage Mau Mau group led by the mysterious SIMBA. Will he find true love, a sense of responsibility, and a proper regard with the indigenous people who are revolting against colonial rule?

Though this a painfully sincere movie illustrating the hardships of being a white farmer in a countryside full of people who do not want white farmers, its hard not to be somewhat appalled by a movie that poses the question -- do the native Kenyans who were part of the Mau Mau deserve to be regarded as men, or simply as savages. While, fortunately, it does feel like the movie makers are making the case for thinking of the Kenyans as humans, it's a bit of a close issue, as the lead farmer is allowed to rant about savages, and the police commissioner trying desperately to keep order, seems to have ill-concealed contempt for the natives revolting against his authority.

The acting is all good, and the direction keeps this particular plot moving. The opening sequence is shocking. The final sequence really is quite tense, and the way the filmmakers choose to end this film makes some rather unpleasant and unpalatable points quite well.

The problem is this. Do you really want to see a movie made from the point of view of the earnest but colonialist occupiers? Are you willing to tolerate something that looks like the film the French in Battle of Algiers would have made, had they access to a camera and clipped British accents? If you aren't, don't watch. You really will get angry.

But, if you want to see viewpoint of the English establishment just before colonialism was ended, this might be as good a place as any to find it.

One of my biggest complaints about American cinema films concerning Africa is that they are complete pulp fiction and give us no real understanding of the continent. How could it since we have no real ties, even colonial ones with Africa. Simba however which is British made and shot on actual location in Kenya Colony which it was at the time this film was made is a good insight to the problems of an Empire in its last gasp and they knew it.

Kenya took longer than most of sub-Saharan Africa to be free because of the Mau Mau rebellion. But free it became within a decade of Simba reaching the screen. Dirk Bogarde stars as a young man come to Africa to work with his brother on the family farm in Kenya. But on his arrival he discovers that the brother has been murdered by the Mau Maus.

This does engender some racial attitudes in Bogarde, understandable to say the least. Seeing the better angels of Africa's nature is Virginia McKenna the daughter of neighboring farmers Basil Sydney and Marie Ney. Dealing with it from a military point of view is Donald Sinden in charge of the local constabulary which also is staffed with native troops.

These players and the rest of Simba's film crew took their lives in their hands going there to make this film. Another American film on Africa, Safari with Victor Mature and Janet Leigh, also dealt peripherally with the Mau Mau movement and was shot there a year later. This is the better product by far.

Mention must also go to Earl Cameron playing the European educated black doctor who is caught between the white colonials and his own natives and this violent outbreak which is harming all. Cameron delivers a fine performance, his is the voice of emerging Africa and Kenya in particular.

Don't miss this one if it's broadcast.

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.

Useless to say that the British film industry doesn't make any films of this kind any more, and this since the mid sixties and the likes of KARTHOUM. Since the end of the British colonial empire; now the UK film industry focuses on social - comedies, crime, dramas - movies, a domain where they are excellent. This gritty and poignant adventure yarn is also excellent and I can't prevent myself to compare it with SOMETHING OF VALUE, SAFARI, BEYOND MOMBASA.... It is one of the best in this genre and also my favourite from director Brian Desmond Hurst, among those I saw from him. Dirk Bogarde as terrific as usual, convincing, especially with his co star Virginia McKenna.

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.