White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Clint Eastwood tries acting out of his normal character in this movie, being as verbose as possible. Not knowing how director John Huston looked or sounded like, I cannot say how well Eastwood portrayed him, but Eastwood simply looked like Eastwood doing a lot of talking for a change.The plot has Huston in Britain, talking some backers into having a movie set in Africa actually located in Africa, rather than on unconvincing studio backdrops as had been done in the past. Then Huston is in Africa, having a run-in with a hotel manager and several other people, and worse yet, showing little interest in actually making the movie, but strongly desiring to shoot an elephant instead. As the title implies, the attempt to shoot the elephant winds up going badly.So what went wrong? Basically, the story moves slowly, and we don't really understand Huston or his motives. Why fight to have a movie set in an exotic location, and then show little interest in making this movie once there? There seems to be no real point to the story, and we feel dissatisfied in the end.

This film a clef presents Peter Viertel, who had a hand in writing "The African Queen," as what appears to be the principal author of the screenplay. Since he was present during the shooting of "The African Queen" (1951) and since he wrote this fictionalized account of the making of the movie, he's intelligent, sensitive, handsome, talented, and humane. He's played by Jeff Fahey, who is at least handsome, whatever else he is.The real director was John Huston who wound up making one of the best-crafted films of his career in Africa. He's played by the director of the current movie, Clint Eastwood. Eastwood is hired to shoot the film but his real interest -- his passion -- isn't making the movie but rather shooting a bull elephant. He keeps putting off the movie in pursuit of the game. The shooting of "The African Queen" doesn't even begin until the very end, and the last word is "action." I hope I didn't get that too mixed up. The plot is easy enough to follow but describing it is a bit of a challenge. It's not about shooting "The African Queen." It's about preparing to shoot "The Afican Queen." The Katherine Hepburn character (Marissa Berenson) appears only briefly and has a few lines. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are barely noticeable.Eastwood, who also directed, does a recognizable impersonation of John Huston's distinctive intonations. That's the easy part. I can do it myself. The script initially gives us a cheerful, charming, and witty Huston, all smiles and cigarillos. Drunkenly, nobly, he gets into a fist fight with a bigger and younger man and is pounded to the ground. His friends help him to his feet and one of them says, "We'd better get a doctor." "He's hurt that bad, huh?", Eastwood gasps.But once we get to Africa the story turns a bit and so does Eastwood. He loses whatever sense of responsibility he had to the producers and crew and concentrates on finding that damned big tusker he wants as a trophy. I could never understand why anyone would want to shoot and kill a mammoth like that. They're a danger to no one. They eat grass and leaves and mind their own business. This is being written three weeks after poachers in a national park in Zimbabwe poisoned an elephant watering hole and killed about 300 of the beasts.At any rate, this film reminded me of a short from an entirely different genre. Laurel and Hardy are preparing a boat they intend to launch. They saw away at it, step the mast, paint the hull. All kinds of pratfalls and mistakes take place. The boat sinks the moment it touches water. The whole comedy was a set up for a much larger adventure that never comes off.Instead of a story about the actual making of "The African Queen," which was quite an adventure in itself, we have a character study of a John-Huston-like figure. And it fails to really come off, even as a character study. In the penultimate scene, Eastwood confronts a huge elephant who presents him with a perfect shot only a few feet away. Eastwood doesn't shoot. Okay. I understand that much. Faced with such magnificence, Eastwood experiences finally a kind of external reality. There are values that transcend his own.But then his "native bearer" and admired friend, Kivu, sacrifices his own life to save Eastwood's. I don't believe it. And when Eastwood and company return to begin shooting the picture, just after the death, Eastwood looks glum, but I have no idea what he's thinking beyond the obvious remorse.It's colorful and Huston was a Byronic figure, but this ought to be more fun than it is.

One of the most intellectual and unknown films from actor and director Clint Eastwood , at the height of his best work as acting as filmmaking , and based on real events . A thinly fictionalized account of a legendary movie director, the world famous film director John Huston , whose desire to hunt down an animal turns into a grim situation , he has gone to Africa to make his next movie , but he is more interested in hunting large tusked elephants that shooting the movie he came to Africa to produce . Eastwood stars , directs and produces this original adventure film that alternates with great skill and unique perspective, a recreation of the early stages in the filming "The African Queen" and the obsession of its director to hunt elephant tusks in the middle portentous African Savannah . Very good performance by Eastwood who gives a self-destructive portrait of the protagonist John Wilson , a facade for John Huston's The African Queen. High performances filled with silences , glances, gestures , supported by an excellent support cast as Jeff Fahey's character is based on Peter Viertel, George Dzundza's on Sam Spiegel ; Marisa Berenson's on Katharine Hepburn and Richard Vanstone's on Humphrey Bogart . Even Katharine Hepburn contested the accuracy of the film . Interesting script with writing credits from prestigious screenwriters as Peter Viertel (novel's author and married to Deborah Kerr), Burt Kennedy and James Bridges , his writing on the screenplay became the final film work . This interesting film results to be an extraordinary building a peculiar character inspired in John Huston as an obstinate, contrary director who'd rather hunt elephants than takes care of his crew or movie . Nobody is better than a great actor-turned-best director, Clint Eastwood , to impersonate one of the greatest American filmmakers with portentous personality and special character . The particularities regarding his crafty , eccentric womanizer and "bon vivant" found in Houston turned to be perfectly incarnated into the wonderful interpretation of Eastwood who provides everything needed to display the charisma and genius of this character . Based on 1953's accounts written by Peter Viertel and well played by Jeff Fahey referring his experiences working on James Agee's screenplay . The small steamboat that they used in the whitewater scene is the same boat that Humphrey Bogart's character captained in The African Queen . Furthermore , the picture displays an atmospheric and sensible musical score by Lennie Niehaus , Eastwood's usual . Colorful cinematography by Jack N. Green filmed on location in Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe , Zambia and in studio : Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK . Rating : Good , better than average .

That for some reason won't call him John Huston. So they call him "John Wilson" and he's directing a film called "African Trader" right after World War II, that just happens to use the same boat Humphrey Bogart used in "The African Queen".but it isn't about making the movie, it's about the director's obsession with shooting an elephant.It's an elegant movie with some great dialog, and Clint Eastwood, trying to escape his type-casting as Clint Eastwood, does some fine work here. But there are places where the movie drags, and Clint just can't help himself.It's elegantly shot and nice to look at, but not a great film.