White Hunter, Black Heart (1990)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Please don't spend money on this.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

In post war Europe, writer Pete Verrill (Jeff Fahey) joins director John Wilson (Clint Eastwood) to work on his next movie to be filmed in Africa. John wants to do a safari to hunt big game. Producer Paul Landers (George Dzundza) is concerned of many issues including the new technology of colored photography, locations, and money. While he deals with various people and issues surrounding the film, John is more interested in taking down a big tusker elephant with the help of local guide Kivu.This is a thinly-veiled fictionalization of legendary director John Huston and his filming of 'The African Queen (1951)'. It's probably more meaningful for fans of the old classic. Clint delivers. The most compelling scene is probably him taking down the racist Mrs. MacGregor. The story can be meandering at times. The drama isn't that high since the film isn't threaten much. The elephant hunt has a poignant power and delivers a meaningful commentary on the character. Jeff Fahey is much less impressive. He takes up space without giving much in return. He is too reserved and too willing to be secondary. He needs to be a better foil for Eastwood.

I have never liked Clint Eastwood, too many predictable and all the same kinds of characters in nearly all his films - as a director and or actor. Never liked him. But I must admit that I really enjoyed this very one. Besides the fact that it is an awesome "hommage" to the great John Huston - every movie buff already knows that - I LOVED the sequence where Eastwood talks to the antisemitic gal, in the restaurant and also the great scene where he got beaten up by the guy - I don't know the actor's name. A very great moment. AT LAST the Eastwood character fails...What a wonderful surprise.And the overall feeling of this movie I saw twenty three years ago makes me say that it's one of the best Eastwood's picture, and unfortunately the least known.

White Hunter Black Heart is loosely based the true story of the making of The African Queen (1951). The screenplay is based on the book by Peter Viertel who worked with director John Huston during the making of the film.Clint Eastwood directs himself as an actor, playing the director John Wilson (a.k.a John Huston). With me so far? The story starts in the United Kingdom, where the irascible Wilson/Huston is trying to get funding for a film set in Africa. Sidekick Pete Verrill is drafted in to work on the script and eventually the whole shebang makes it to Entebbe (Uganda). However, it rapidly becomes apparent that Wilson/Huston has little interest in making a film, and his real reason for being there is to shoot and kill the biggest elephant he can find. Suffice to say, it all ends in tears. And that's about it for the plot.It's pretty feeble stuff. And sadly, the lack of a plot isn't made up for by fantastic performances from the cast. The main problem is Eastwood himself. Wilson is written as a complex, egotistical, inconsistent, selfish character, and Eastwood just doesn't have the depth or weight to carry it off. The performance isn't helped by the fact that in places he looks physically frail. Eastwood's performance borders on an impersonation of John Hughes - a caricature more than a characterisation. Because of this, the film takes on a cartoonish, somewhat comedic air at times (but it's far from a comedy).Eastwood isn't helped by the script. Given the whole thing revolves around a man who wants to kill an elephant, we never really understand why. Halfway through, there is a lengthy monologue where Wilson/Huston takes a moral stand against a woman who declares that Hitler was right to try to kill the Jews. It's followed by another long scene where he ends up in a bare knuckle brawl with the hotel manager who he sees mistreating his (black) staff. Wilson/Hudson explains his behaviour with 'We fought the preliminary for the k*kes; now we'll fight the main event for the n*ggers' This valiant supporter of human rights is the same man who harbours an obsessive need to kill an elephant? It seems the inconsistency doesn't make sense to the cast either. When challenged to explain his bloodlust, Wilson/Huston's answer is: 'It's not a crime... it's bigger than that... it's a SIN'. And that's all we get. It just doesn't add up.What does make White Hunter worth watching is the beautiful photography of the African landscape. Also good is the unexpected appearance of Timothy Spall (of Auf Wiedersehen Lads fame) as Hodkins, the eccentric Bush pilot. He's not great either, but he does his best. Finally, Marisa Berenson, in the minor role of Kay Gibson (a.k.a. Katherine Hepburn) doesn't show up very often, but when she does, she's somehow riveting . Oh, and there's a really, really cute baby elephant.Clint Eastwood directed this film two years after he directed the excellent Bird (1988). Watch Bird instead.

John Wilson is a maverick Hollywood film director with a reputation for self-destructive egocentric behaviour. His latest movie is a drama set in Africa and he hires Pete Verrill, a writer, to assist with the script. Pete soon discovers however that Wilson is much more interested in shooting an elephant than shooting a movie …Although the names have been changed, this is obviously a story about John Huston and the notoriously arduous shooting of his 1951 classic The African Queen. It's not really so much about the movie however as the man, and as a character study of the dictatorial, risk-taking temperament required to be a successful movie director it's first-rate. Aside from being tall, Eastwood does not resemble Huston either physically or professionally yet he does what any good actor can do and disappears into this persona. He seems larger than life, gleefully shocking polite society ladies and stubbornly refusing to behave like a professional, but by all accounts this was what Huston was like. He may be insufferable, but he is candid, honest, witty, and seizes life by the throat whilst others are simply swept along. It's one of Eastwood's most extreme and remarkable performances, and he is ably supported by the very capable cast, notably the underrated Fahey. Movies about movies are often either vacuous (America's Sweethearts) or pretentious (8½) but by concentrating on character, and filling out its story with satire and humour, this is one of the most interesting. Written by Peter Viertel, James Bridges and Burt Kennedy, based on a novel by Viertel (who was married to Deborah Kerr for fifty years). Photographed in beautiful locations in Zimbabwe and at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.