Last year, Kyle and I watched Clint Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison County, and I loved it so much. In fact, it was probably my favorite movie I watched in all of 2020. I have never been the biggest Eastwood fan, but since I loved that one so much, there was so much humanity in it. Unfortunately, White Hunter, Black Heart, his 1990 movie based loosely on the making of the African Queen does not have the same qualities.
Eastwood is behind the camera and in front of it as John Wilson, the stand in for John Houston, the director of the African Queen. Wilson is at once petulant, stubborn and in some ways toxically masculine, but at the same time, he has a keen moral compass. Except to when it comes to his obsession with killing an elephant, he basically wants to make this movie in Africa so the studio will pay him to be able to hunt. His friend Paul (Jeff Fahey, honestly just not a strong enough actor to handle the role) comes on as the film's writer, and there are a few fun scenes with actor's portraying the Katherine Hepburn type and the Humphrey Bogart stand in. But overall, I couldn't get into the film.
Eastwood is at times oddly wooden, and other times electric as Wilson, in particular, the scene in which a beautiful woman he is wooing reveals herself to be an awful anti semite. high off the moral righteousness he feels, he then proceeds to pick a fight with the awful racist Maître d at the hotel the crew is camped out at. The philosophical debate Paul and Wilson have over the sin of killing an elephant, is just not that interesting, and while the elephants are beautiful, I don't feel like the majesty of Africa is really expressed. The story of a white man entranced with Africa is an old one, as is an obsession that takes over all reason, but I just don't think the film really got at either particularly well. ★★.5
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