Visit to a Chief's Son (1974)
An American anthropologist and his son benefit from their experiences with an East African tribe.
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Let's be realistic.
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Visit to A Chief's Son is a strange mixture of anthropology, travelogue, and social commentary. Beautifully filmed by Ernest Day, who went on to work on several James Bond films, it's the story of scientist Richard Mulligan and his attempts to get close to the Masai people of Kenya. His son, played by John Philip Hogdon in a commendably understated performance, gums up the works, and an educated-in-London Masai (Johnny Sekka) further complicates matters by messing with Mulligan's preconceived notions about 'the natives'. It's not very exciting, but it is an interesting and serious look at the pressures put on tribal peoples by modernism and progress. It would be nice to see the film in its proper aspect ratio as the TV print really doesn't do Day's work justice.