A thinly veiled account of John Huston's obsession with killing an elephant whilst on location filming The African Queen. Why he is so intent on this is only explained by 'It's the only sin you can buy a licence for and then carry out' - which doesn't do it for me. Thankfully, when the moment comes, he can't go through with it, but his loyal tribesman dies in the process - we were amazed the white hunting party just left the dead man there rather than return him to his tribe.
Based on Peter Viertel's fictionalized version of events (who actually was helping Huston on the script on this trip) thus all the name changes. Huston's autobiography 'An Open Book' doesn't seem entirely trustworthy, so this story is refreshingly honest - there's no way Huston would admit to having lost a fist fight, for example, as he does here (totally unexpectedly).
Eastwood plays him well and this is the most fun aspect of the film.
Jeff Fahey plays Viertel. (In the nineties he wrote a book called 'Dangerous Friends: At Large with Hemingway and Huston in the Fifties'.) The adaptation is by Burt Kennedy and James Bridges. Photography: Jack Green; editing: Joel Cox; music Lennie Niehaus
With George Dzundza (producer), Marisa Berenson, Boy Mathias Chuma, Alan Armstrong, Timothy Spall.
No comments:
Post a Comment