Hatari!

Hatari! (1962)

Runtime: 157 minutes

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Starring: John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons, Gerald Blain

From: Paramount

I did in fact watch another Wayne movie last night for a reason; tonight I'll see another one by him so I figured it made sense to go with 3 in a row. I have actually seen this long film before; I explain it all in my Letterboxd review below: 

As tonight I'll be watching another John Wayne film, I figured I might as well see a motion picture from him 3 nights in a row and I borrowed a copy of this from someone I know; I actually have watched this movie before but that was way back when in the 1990's, when a grandparent had it on VHS; Paramount actually had it on two cassettes. I know the movie's long at 157 minutes but I was surprised they did not put it on a super-long tape. BTW, what memories I have of watching something so long it required two tapes.

Anyhow, this movie is set and filmed in what is now known as Tanzania; back then the territory of Tanganyika; I laughed when the beginning of the film had a note thanking the country, its citizens “and its animals”, as if the latter had the choice in appearing here. You see, this is about the now long-dated practice of people wrangling animals and shipping them elsewhere to be in zoos. Even back in the 90's I was told by a parent how outdated this was and how it's “not right”. These days in the era of hatred for places like Sea World (and a few even hate zoos altogether, which I think is an ignorant view but this is neither the time nor place to discuss that) it especially looks not good. If you watch this and decide to root for the animals that is OK.

However, I am able to set aside such things and I enjoy this for what it is... which is a tale of some wacky characters (not all of whom have enlightened views of women) and seeing them in an exotic setting and all the romantic entanglements that happen not only with the lady that's been there all the time because she's the daughter of a guy they used to work with, but with another lady that suddenly enters the picture.

I can't rate this as great or a classic (there are definitely Howard Hawks productions out there that those labels can be attached to) but I am still pretty entertained by this piece of work. The tone is light and breezy-even if the title means “danger” in Swahili-so there are many humorous moments throughout-the score from Henry Mancini matches it-especially from the character played by Red Buttons. When the animal wrangling does happen it's pretty exciting. Even back then they were smart enough to realize some people may have reservations about the storyline so they included some cute animals, including more than one baby elephant.

To me it was nice to see the country of Tanzania, as I don't know too much about it, past or present. It's mostly the countryside but a few minutes are set in the city of Arusha. It's a production from this time period so it's no surprise that those who live in the country don't have any major roles and they're background players, but luckily aside from one awkward moment there's no objectionable moments of racism or prejudice. While I don't know the customs of the tribes of the area, I presume that none of them would dress a non-native person in their garb AND dye their skin black... it's just a presumption, though.

Thankfully that's one short moment in a long movie and overall, while it's not a must-see if you're a fan of The Duke (unless you must see him speak phrases in Swahili) it's still an entertaining diversion.