Mountains of the Moon (1990)

The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the... See full summary »

Director:

Bob Rafelson

Writers:

William Harrison (novel), William Harrison (screenplay),

Stars:

Patrick Bergin, Iain Glen, Richard E. Grant

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patrick Bergin	...	Richard Francis Burton
Iain Glen	...	John Hanning Speke
Richard E. Grant	...	Larry Oliphant
Fiona Shaw	...	Isabel Arundell (Mrs Burton as from 1861)
John Savident	...	Lord Murchison
James Villiers	...	Lord Oliphant
Adrian Rawlins	...	Edward
Peter Vaughan	...	Lord Houghton
Delroy Lindo	...	Mabruki
Bernard Hill	...	Dr. David Livingstone
Matthew Marsh	...	William
Richard Caldicot	...	Lord Russell
Christopher Fulford	...	Herne
Garry Cooper	...	Stroyan
Roshan Seth	...	Ben Amir

Storyline

The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the story of their meeting, their friendship emerging amidst hardship, and then dissolving after their journey.

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Plot Keywords:

expedition | british | friendship | richard francis burton | queen victoria | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | History | Mystery

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 February 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aux sources du Nil

Filming Locations:

Africa

Box Office

Gross:

$4,011,793 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Carolco Pictures, IndieProd Company Productions, Zephyr Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the end titles, Rod Woodruff is credited with playing a fencer but his role is missing from the end film.

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Goofs

Although Larry Oliphant is portrayed as a homosexual, by all accounts he was in real life heterosexual: the filmmakers changed his sexual orientation to create a more dramatic reason for Speke's betrayal of Burton after all they had gone through together.

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Quotes

Arab chief in Cairo: In this wilderness you will find only Allah's terrible whimsy.

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Connections

Referenced in Serial Mom (1994)

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Soundtracks

"Kawamba Dance"
Recorded by David Fanshawe
From the album "Africa - Witchcraft & Ritual Music"

User Reviews

Sophisticated epic story telling with depth and intelligence

It was my good fortune to see MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON several times in its original theatrical release at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre in 1990. An article in the New York Times months earlier had alerted me to the possibility that this was my kind of movie. That easily proved to be true. MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON promptly became a great personal favorite, leading me to read two biographies of Sir Richard Francis Burton.

When MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON was originally released on DVD on the Pioneer label I bought it immediately. Once again, I was lucky because the Pioneer release was in the original 1:85 theatrical ratio. The Pioneer release was withdrawn and this title was subsequently reissued on DVD on a different label. Regrettably it was in a full screen pan and scan version that spoiled this film's excellent visual compositions.

MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON is superbly directed by Bob Rafelson. Although known as an excellent director of contemporary material, there is nothing in his previous body of work to prepare you for Rafelson's outstanding achievement in a period epic. It is uniformly well acted and technical credits are on a very high level. This overlooked classic deserves to be restored to it correct technical specifications on DVD. Hopefully, Bob Rafelson could do a commentary. Criterion Collection, are you listening?

If you have not had the great good fortune to see this film theatrically, then let me urge you to seek out the Pioneer DVD release in the correct aspect ratio. MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON is practically the only film that I would seriously compare to LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Each one is what you might call a thinking man's epic. Both of them succeed in asking provocative questions, without succumbing to giving the audience banal answers.

Thematically, MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON is one of the relatively few films that seriously deals with male friendship gone wrong. Although the theme of toxic friendships has been well explored in so-called women's films, it's comparatively rare in films dealing with men. In order to accomplish this aim, MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON takes some license with the facts. However, it does so in order to serve a larger measure of the truth.

MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON never resorts to cliché. This is a film for people who have a taste for sophisticated epic story telling and intimate character study. It has an unflinching eye for the best and the worst in it's characters. Layer by layer, Burton and Speke are revealed to be all too human.

Allow me to recommend MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON to you without reservation.