It’s hard to imagine who this DVD release of The Brigand of Kandahar will appeal to. People who remember it fondly from when it first came out in 1965? If there’s anyone out there that applies to, congratulations. You’re the target market. Otherwise, even Oliver Reed completists will struggle to see the value in this horribly dated, racially offensive and narratively malnourished period piece from the Hammer vaults.
Ostensibly, this is the tale of Lieutenant Case (Ronald Lewis), a mixed-race British officer serving in what is now Pakistan during the early days of the British Raj. After being dismissed for abandoning a fellow officer – an officer Case was cuckolding – Case launches a personal vendetta against his former colonel and runs off with the “slightly mad” but much feared “Brigand of Kandahar”.
In reality, of course, this is the story of what happens when a well-intentioned story about the brutal process of colonisation and the evils of racism spectacularly misses its mark by using white actors in blackface who rave in what is either poorly pronounced Pashto or, more likely, gibberish. Because I’m feeling churlish, I will also deduct marks for Ratina’s boobtacular and therefore historically inaccurate costuming.
As Ali Khan, the titular Brigand, Reed has a high old time chewing on the cardboard scenery and cackling a lot. Although the pantomime camp of Reed’s performance cannot conceal that he’s wearing nugget on his face and white satin breeches, it is nevertheless very disappointing when Khan is killed off during a sabre duel with Case. Reed really looks like he’s fighting for his life – all flashing eyes, straining sinews and bared teeth. Lewis, on the other hand, looks like he’s struggling with a tricky bit of topiary.
The film’s many failings may not be so glaring had anyone bothered to invest time in developing something approaching a proper plot or meaningful characterisation. Instead, Brigand makes the most of its meagre budget by hurrying from short snatches of clunky expository dialogue to full-blown action. The battle scenes are impressive enough displays of thundering cavalry and although some horses were sure as shit injured for the sake of realism, it wasn’t during the making of this film. Brigand’s battle scenes were culled from Zarak, a similarly-themed flick made by Warwick Films almost ten years earlier.
Jolly poor show all round.
Clare Moody