The story of explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke and their search for the source of the Nile in the 1800s gains new life in this handsomely produced account. It has the added trimmings of some spicy sex scenes between Burton (Patrick Bergin) and his wife-to-be (the interesting Fiona Shaw) and red-blooded violence in which steel is quite often seen to penetrate flesh in one way or another - whether slowly, or with the speed of the spear that splits Burton (who survives) from cheekbone to cheekbone in one of the action's early skirmishes. Although the film's final segment telescopes a few years, director Bob Rafelson can certainly be excused such licence in view of the dramatic effect it achieves. Overall, the narrative is a little long, and contains a number of minor scenes which could have been trimmed more ruthlessly. The performances, though, are unquestionably 'on the money', especially Richard E Grant's unctuous Laurence Oliphant, using both Speke's homosexual nature and his own cunning persuasion to set the explorers at odds with one another for his own publishing gain.

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