The movie begins with the captions: "The life of Cecil Rhodes is a drama of the man who set out single-handed to unite a continent. In the pursuit of this task, he spared neither himself nor others. By some he was hailed as an inspired leader, by others he was reviled as an ambitious adventurer. But to the Matabele--the very people he had conquered--he was a Royal Warrior, who tempered conquest with the gift of ruling. At his death, they gave to him, alone of white men before or since, their Royal Salute Bayete! Perhaps these children of Africa came closest to understanding the heart of this extraordinary man" which explain that there is controversy about Cecil Rhodes: whether he was a hero and an inspirational figure, or ambitious adventurer.
The film opens with an explanation of what South Africa's map looked like in the year 1870. After the explanation the film shows a family in the Cape Colony that have found a diamond. Following this, a complete diamond rush began. Then, Rhodes made his first appearance on the film, in the Kimberley Club. There, he meets his opponent who plans to buy all the Kimberleymines, and Rhodes sayes that is also what he plans to do. Then he goes to the doctor, who tells him he only has six more years to live. After they talk, the doctor claims that Rhodes has a desire to live, which is better than any medicine he can give.
Ten years later, his doctor says that he doesn't believe it, and congratulates Rhodes for managing to purchase all the mines in Kimberly. Then, he says, ten years ago, he only gave him six more years to live, and Rhodes said he had not even a spare moment to think about it ever since. After they had a little chat, Rhodes's opponent came in and said he did not understand how Rhodes managed to win; Rhodes explained to him that his employees spied on him, gave Rhodes all the inside info, and that is why Rhodes managed to win. After Rhodes's opponent gets less mad, Rhodes said he wants to invite him to work for his company.
Rhodes shows the map of Africa to his employees at British South Africa Company, explaining that north of where they are, the Transvaal Republic has rich gold mines, and that this poor country is no longer poor. These mines are not available to them, but in the land north from Transvaal, who knows what they will find, gold, copper, coal, fertile land for agriculture. He explained that the diamonds they found could be over, so he had to expand. At first there was resistance, but then he was able to persuade them.
The Transvaal President, his mother, and his friend - Henry talking about Rhodes with a woman who came to visit them. They are aware that Rhodes is planning to meet Lobengula, and Kroger (the Transvaal president) tells Henry that he must get there first and warn Lobengula. As Rhodes enters into the borders of the land of Lobengula, many local people surround him, bringing him to their king. At first, Lobengula is angry that all the white men who come to this country want something from him, saying that if he could have gotten rid of every one of them, he would have done it. His soldiers start aiming their javelins at him, but then Rhodes said he wants to talk to the king, and they took down the javelins. Rhodes told king Lobengula will not be able to get any rest from all the white people who come to bother him unless he makes a deal with one such person strong enough to protect him. After a little persuasion, he shows him a contract and Lobengula signs it.
A few days later, Rhodes arrives to the house of the president of the Boers, informing him that he has managed to obtain the land of Lobengula. He says the two strongest countries in Africa need to work together, otherwise there will be war. Krueger says that if there was a war it would be the fault of the English and not his fault. Rhodes says it doesn't matter who it is, because if there is a war, it will destroy what Rhodes built and what Kruger built. Kruger refuses, saying they will not fight and will not work together.
Two doctors who talk about Rhodes' dire health, and say it's a tragedy, an entire country named after him, he just returned from London where they received him as king, and he has heart problems. The other doctor says it is a miracle that not much happened before the sea before and that only his ideology could keep him alive so much.
Some people were complaining to Kruger, telling him that he called people from all over the world to come and develop his country, and in response to his outcry they came. All of Johannesburg was built from their own money, but his laws give them fewer rights. The police only protects only the Boers and not them. Their fields were attacked by an epidemic, and they couldn't save their crops because according to Kruger, an epidemic in those fields is a punishment from the sky. Paul Kruger refuses to listen to them, so they decide to take a train south, to Cape Town, to Rhodes. At first, they told that they cannot say one thing in Southern Africa that Rhodes did not improve and they ask him, as Cape Colony's prime minister, and the director of the British South African company, and ask him to send troops to protect them. They say they will get rights and freedom, and that Rhodes will get a united South Africa. He collapses, and his doctors bring him to rest, telling people from Transvaal that soon he will be fine and that he can talk to them. At the house of the Transvaal president, some people came over him and said they refused to come out before he realized what was really going on. He says they stopped a truck full of oil tanks – all the containers were full of ammunition. They are trying to get him to give the signal, to start fighting, and he says they should be given time.
At the border between British South African colonies, and Transvaal, the soldiers of the British South African Company's army were already impatient. They send a letter to Rhodes asking that they leave as soon as possible. Rhodes says this to people who came to ask for help in their revolt, but they say they're not ready yet. When Rhodes heard that the Boer forces had captured the British forces he had sent to the border, he went straight to Jonasburg, to meet Kruger to ask for them to be released. Kruger initially refused, but then Rhodes claims he is no longer Cape Colony's prime minister, or the director of the British South African company – he resigned both jobs. He can no longer disturb Kroger and asks him to release the soldiers he kidnapped.
And then, the following text appears: "A few years later the clash came which Rhodes had foreseen-The Boer War. Out of this struggle rose the triumph of his life's ideal-The Union of South Africa. But Rhodes couldn't live to see it's fulfilment". The text explains that the second boer war has begun, but Rhodes didn't live to see the end of the war. The movie ends with a scene where they show Rhodes dying, and then his dead body is brought to Rhodesia, and the native tribes gave him their royal salute.[2]
The film was the idea of South African novelist Sara Millin, who pitched the idea of a film of Rhodes' life to Michael Balcon.[3] Plans to make the movie were abandoned when General Smuts expressed opposition to the project. However he changed his mind after he read a copy of the script. Leslie Banks, Clive Brook, Cedric Hardwicke and Brian Aherne were all discussed for the lead before Walter Huston was cast.[3]
The movie soundtrack was composed by Hubert Buth. Hubert was a British film composer and a music director. The composition and recordings were directed by Louis Levy. Levy was a film composer and a music director.
Reception
Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a good review. Describing the film as "sober, worthy, [and] humourless", Greene observed that the tone of the biographical film was one of modern Liberalism, both "more charitable" and "with the anarchistic point of view of a man who never makes a moral condemnation". Greene also mentioned that "after ten days [he could] remember very little of this film but a sense of gentle titillation".[5]
Awards and honours
The movie is considered the eighth best movie of the year 1936. Oskar Homolka won eighth best performance of the year for his portrayal of Paul Kruger in Rhodes. Walter Huston won sixth best performance of the year for his portrayal of Cecil Rhodes.[6]
The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902.
The Jameson Raid was a botched raid against the South African Republic carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It involved 500 British South Africa Company police launched from Rhodesia over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. Paul Kruger, for whom Rhodes had great personal hatred, was president of the South African Republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers in the Transvaal but it failed. The workers were referred to as The Johannesburg Conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection; however, the raid was ineffective, and no uprising took place. The results included embarrassment of the British government; the replacement of Cecil Rhodes as prime minister of the Cape Colony; and the strengthening of Boer dominance of the Transvaal and its gold mines. The raid was a contributory cause of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Nicknamed Oom Paul, he came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and its neighbour the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He has been called a personification of Afrikanerdom, and remains a controversial figure; admirers venerate him as a tragic folk hero.
Cecil John Rhodes was an English colonialist, mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which the company named after him in 1895. He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate.
The year 1870 in the history of the Cape Colony marks the dawn of a new era in South Africa, and it can be said that the development of modern South Africa began on that date. Despite political complications that arose from time to time, progress in Cape Colony continued at a steady pace until the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer Wars in 1899. The discovery of diamonds in the Orange River in 1867 was immediately followed by similar finds in the Vaal River. This led to the rapid occupation and development of huge tracts of the country, which had hitherto been sparsely inhabited. Dutoitspan and Bultfontein diamond mines were discovered in 1870, and in 1871 the even richer mines of Kimberley and De Beers were discovered. These four great deposits of mineral wealth were incredibly productive, and constituted the greatest industrial asset that the Colony possessed.
Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Baronet,, was a British colonial politician, who was best known for his involvement in the ill-fated Jameson Raid.
Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr was a politician in the Cape Colony. He was affectionately known as Onze Jan, "our Jan" in Dutch.
Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers and are further separated from Midlands by the Shangani River in central Zimbabwe. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people who were called "Amatabele"(people with long spears – Mzilikazi 's group of people who were escaping the Mfecani wars). Other ethnic groups who inhabit parts of Matabeleland include the Tonga, Bakalanga, Venda, Nambya, Khoisan, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, and Tsonga. The population of Matabeleland is just over 20% of the Zimbabwe's total.
Sir Charles Patrick John Coghlan,, was a lawyer and politician who served as Premier of Southern Rhodesia from 1 October 1923 to his death. Having led the responsible government movement in the territory during the latter days of Company rule, he was Southern Rhodesia's first head of government after it became a self-governing colony within the British Empire.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Marshall Hole, CMG was an English pioneer, administrator and author and best known for issuing the "Marshall Hole currency".
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS was a prominent South African and Commonwealth statesman, military leader, and philosopher. He served as a Boer General during the Boer War, a British General during the First World War and was appointed Field Marshal by King George VI during the Second World War. In addition to various cabinet appointments, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. From 1917 to 1919 he was one of five members of the British War Cabinet, helping to create the Royal Air Force. He played a leading part in the post-war settlements at the end of both world wars, making significant contributions towards the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations. He did much to redefine the relationship between Britain and the Dominions and Colonies, leading to the formation of the British Commonwealth.
The Rudd Concession, a written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and other adjoining territories in what is today Zimbabwe, was granted by King Lobengula of Matabeleland to Charles Rudd, James Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson, three agents acting on behalf of the South African-based politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes, on 30 October 1888. Despite Lobengula's retrospective attempts to disavow it, it proved the foundation for the royal charter granted by the United Kingdom to Rhodes's British South Africa Company in October 1889, and thereafter for the Pioneer Column's occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, which marked the beginning of white settlement, administration and development in the country that eventually became Rhodesia, named after Rhodes, in 1895.
The military history of Zimbabwe chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers invasions of native peoples of Africa, encroachment by Europeans, and civil conflict.
Europeans first came to the region in southern Africa today called Zimbabwe in the sixteenth century, when Portuguese colonials ventured inland from Mozambique and attacked the Kingdom of Mutapa, which then controlled an area roughly equivalent to eastern Zimbabwe and western Mozambique. Portuguese influence over Mutapa endured for about two centuries before fading away during the 1690s and early-1700s (decade). During the year of 1685, French Huguenots emigrated to present-day South Africa and whilst some settled there, others moved further north into the continent. Those who did, settled within modern-day Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, and co-existed with the indigenous people; most of whom, in Zimbabwe, were the Naletale people.
The South African Wars, including – and commonly referred to as – the Confederation Wars, were a series of wars that occurred in the southern portion of the African continent between 1879 and 1915. Ethnic, political, and social tensions between European colonial powers and indigenous Africans led to increasing hostilities, culminating in a series of wars and revolts, which had lasting repercussions on the entire region. A key factor behind the growth of these tensions was the pursuit of commerce and resources, both by countries and individuals, especially following the discoveries of diamonds in the region in 1867 and gold in 1862.
The Drifts Crisis of 1895 was an imperial-republican confrontation in South Africa that took place in September and October 1895. It was precipitated by the closing of fords, which in South Africa were known as 'drifts'. The Crisis has traditionally been seen as the precursor to the Jameson Raid and the uncompromising policies of High Commissioner for Southern Africa Alfred Milner which followed, and eventually led to the Second Anglo-Boer War. Historians generally regard the conflicts to have been between the Cape Colony and the South African Republic (SAR), informally known as the Transvaal Republic.
Goshen, officially known as the State of Goshen, was a short-lived Boer republic in southern Africa founded by Boers expanding west from Transvaal who opposed British advance in the region.
The British South Africa Company's administration of what became Rhodesia was chartered in 1889 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and began with the Pioneer Column's march north-east to Mashonaland in 1890. Empowered by its charter to acquire, govern and develop the area north of the Transvaal in southern Africa, the Company, headed by Cecil Rhodes, raised its own armed forces and carved out a huge bloc of territory through treaties, concessions and occasional military action, most prominently overcoming the Matabele army in the First and Second Matabele Wars of the 1890s. By the turn of the century, Rhodes's Company held a vast, land-locked country, bisected by the Zambezi river. It officially named this land Rhodesia in 1895, and ran it until the early 1920s.
Carl (Karl) Ludwig Ferdinand Borckenhagen was an influential journalist and political leader of the Orange Free State, and a founder of the Afrikaner Bond.
Francis Joseph Dormer was an influential journalist and newspaper editor in southern Africa.
1 2 "Big British Films". The Voice. Vol.8, no.52. Tasmania, Australia. 28 December 1935. p.6. Retrieved 26 October 2017– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "FILM WORDS". The West Australian. Vol.51, no.15, 328. Western Australia. 9 August 1935. p.2. Retrieved 26 October 2017– via National Library of Australia.
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