Hatari!

Incredibly insipid movie. The acting is intolerably pathetic, the script even more so (both of them a few notches below a sub-par "Gilligan's Island" episode), and the plot unintelligible. There are two things that save this movie from the absolute bottom of the barrel: the Mancini soundtrack (with the exception of the "ditty" for the final chase scene), and the animal tracking scenes. The filming for the actual animal captures is truly magnificent, even more so with the knowledge that the actors themselves were responsible for all the action. Essentially, if one dumps all that tepid "plot," erases all the actor's lines, and edits out all but the animal chase sequences, Howard Hawks would have had a damn fine movie on his hands.

¨Hatari¨ is an awesome mixture of moving action , sunny adventure and light comedy about some wild-animal trappers , and in Swahili language it means ¨Danger ¨. A team of professionals who holds each other to high standards in their job have a common objective , the animal trapping in Tanganyika . As it follows the travails of a group (Hardy Kruger , Red Buttoms, Michelle Girandon , Gerard Blain , Elsa Martinelli, Bruce Cabot among others) of safari hunters led , of course, by John Wayne , undergoing adventures , risks , and amusing situations . They form a lively community , preservationists working a game reserve and interwoven with friendship ,camaraderie, integration , professionalism , romance and self-respect . Superb blend of adventures and comedy ; effortlessly switching between love story and humor . This is a fascinating flick upon a sympathetic group in that includes adventure ,crisp banter, romance, and noisy action . It contains Hawks' usual issues as a community decided to build their aim on a dangerous territory , friendship , conflict and attraction between men and women, importance of the group and comradeship among people and ample shots over prairies and African savanna . Though John Wayne acted his part in about a thousand ways for Hawks over decades , and he could not be more exciting as intrepid hunter . Impressive chase scenes through its riveting footage of the real capture of wildlife in that the risk of the hunt are stunningly evoked . This Howard Hawks's adventure-comedy is mainly the same, loosely plotted story Hawks made over and over again for years . As this could easily be seen as ¨Only Angels have wings¨ transferred from the Andes to the African savanna. Furthermore , ordinary improvisation , and free-screenplay for that reason many scenes were spontaneously realized by Hawks who was continuously telephonying to screen-writer Leight Bracket to America . It only Hawks had been able to do as he wished and stars Clark Gable and John Wayne , but the King passed away and stood Wayne at his best . Colorful cinematography by Russell Harlan who won Academy Award nomination with dangerous shooting in which animals destroyed three cameras . As we are watching several African animals , without use of stock-shots, but they are actual Hyenas, Gnus, Elephants, Crocodiles, monkeys ,Buffalos and spectacular Rhino hunts . Marvelous score by Henry Mancini with notable and popular themes as ¨ Baby elephant walk¨ and song titled ¨Just for tonight¨ by Carmichael and Johnny Mercer . The picture has the usual Howard Hawks message¨: ¨Every time get real action , then you have danger¨ and all his habitual themes emerge naturally and gently. This phenomenal film results to be one of the best productions about Africa chase and is developed in relaxed pace and tone , constituting a real masterpiece.

More than anything else, this movie is about a small group of people who chain smoke...that almost seems to be the focus of the movie. It is set in Africa, as this group of people attempts to capture several different wild animals. Plus there is the side story of a couple romances. That basically is the whole movie...which is not so great, sadly enough. It is somewhat entertaining as they made their efforts to capture some of the animals. However it became more and more redundant and boring as the group of people continue to chain smoke at all times except while they are pursuing the wild animals. There is also some jeopardy involved in the risk involved in capturing the animal. By the end of the movie they have 3 baby elephants and these elephants provide a fair amount of comic relief and substantially improve the story.

Director Howard Hawks re-teams with John Wayne, who heads a cast that also includes Hardy Kruger, Red Buttons, and Bruce Cabot, who play animal wranglers in Africa who capture wild animals(like Elephants, Lions, and the elusive Rhinos) for various zoos who are willing to pay for their exclusive services, in order to display these magnificent creatures in captivity. These men, when they aren't hunting, are fighting, drinking, and gambling, as well as pursuing women, which now includes a Swiss photographer who has just arrived to take pictures of the men, and their hunting, when she isn't taking care of baby elephants... Bloated film that was likely more fun to make than it is to watch, since animal lovers like myself will be less than enthralled by the capture of wild animals who should instead be protected in their environment! Though nicely filmed, even amiable to a point, it cannot overcome this inherent problem.

This obeys the conventions of the time whereby an ageing male star has the right to romance a glamorous young woman despite being old enough to be her grandfather.There is little story in this film,just innumerable ways to capture wild animals.No doubt the fact that the film was directed by Howard Hawks and started John Wayne made it a hit with uncritical viewers.

The political attack on this film is bewildering and annoying; it's such a parody of outraged liberalism that I can't help wondering if it's not the work of right-wing trolls pretending to be liberal to anger readers here. At any rate let's knock down the most obvious fallacies of this attack: 1. In the "Trivia" section here, it is charged that the film was made under an apartheid regime because John Wayne supported it. Hatari was filmed in Tanganika, and there was no apartheid in effect in that country at the time. ("Apartheid" was a legalized caste system only ever in effect in South Africa.) 2. While the native African populations are kept largely in the background, there are no denigrating remarks made concerning them, but instead an insistence that their traditions be respected. The film's social structure is actually constructed to emphasize cultural pluralism - the focal group is made up of a German, several French descendants, a Swiss-Italian, a Spaniard, a Native American, an American Jew (Buttons as "Pockets") and of course Wayne - an Irish Catholic playing the only WASP in the group. 3. The "homophobia" charge directed against the film has to do with a single line, when Dallas asks Pockets why Wayne's character "doesn't like women," and Pockets says she suffers under a "misapprehension." I'm sorry, this is "homophobic?" I watched this movie several times over the past 40 odd years and I never noticed this until I read it on IMDb? Well, maybe it's not really there. 4. It is charged that the film has been "censored" for homophobia, sexism, racism and smoking (?!) in television broadcasts. Maybe in the troll's fantasy world. The film has occasionally been shortened due to it's length. 5. The film, it is charged, is sexist, using women as mere objects. Of what? Dallas, the female lead, is aggressive about her job, about her desires to experience Africa, about her sexuality. And she's hip and intelligent, intimidating the older (and old-fashioned) Wayne on a number of occasions. If this defined sexism, there would never have been any need for feminism. 6. Smoking - it should be pointed out that smoking is as much a right-wing issue as a liberal concern (it insults fundamentalist Protestant aesthetics). There's no denying that a lot of smoking takes place in this film. It was made when the preliminary studies on the dangers of smoking were just coming out and their veracity contested by the tobacco companies, and after a long tradition of heavy smoking in the cinema. The smoking behavior of the characters is just one of the things one tolerates if one wants to see a good film of the era. 7. It is suggested that the animals - especially the elephants - were mistreated during the film and killed off afterwards. There's no evidence to suggest this, reports that the actors themselves were involved in the capture of the animals are counterfactual evidence against this charge (what you see is largely what actually happened), and it is known that the baby elephants died four decades later of natural causes in zoos. Now onto the film itself: The acting is largely insufficient (as plagued most Hawks films of the '60s). It is episodic. The plot, such as it is, meanders. The conclusion does feel somewhat artificial. But it's largely a fantasy about a real way of life that most of us hardly knew existed before watching the film. And it's a fascinating way of life, fantasy or real. The film is a kind of "Western" set in Africa, without a villain but with chases aplenty. It's an adventure film and a romantic comedy. Its canvass is wide, its strokes are broad. And it is character centered - if you like these people (and I do) you will have no problem liking this film.

I saw this movie for the first time when I was about 7. I am in my later 30's now and still enjoy seeing it anytime I can. This is a movie that I would be interested in buying it was so entertaining. This was a great movie back then for me to see, and a movie that I would be happy to sit down with my children and watch now. It is clean fun with a lot of humor. My favorite parts of the film were when they were working with the animals, which was most of the time. The baby elephants added quite a bit to the movie and made it fun. Excellent family film. If you enjoy animals and have a few hours to kill, I recommend you rent this one.

Hatari is a fun movie to watch at any age and Red Buttons is hilarious as pockets. I saw this movie when it first came out in the 60s and as a young teenager I "fell in love" with Michele Girardon (Brandy). Unfortunately, I found out years later that she died of cancer as a result of too much smoking. The subplot of Pockets (older guy) falling in love with Brandy (the younger woman) while the other two girl chasers(Kirt & Chips) compete for Brandy's attention, is well performed. I still see Hatari whenever it comes out on AMC or Turner Classic Movies. If this type of movie was produced today, I wonder which collection of movie stars would be willing to star in it. -Julius

Hatari! contains a few cute lines, delivered as only John Wayne could. That aside its entertainment value lies mainly in the spectacle created by Hollywood actors frightening, harassing, molesting, exhausting and enraging dangerous wild animals in their natural habitat (a practice now banned in Africa as it places huge unnecessary stress on wild herds of animals). Where did the dead elephant come from? who knows! At least one crew member was injured badly by an animal, and one was mauled to death. The dialogue is slow and two-dimensional, there is a severe pacing problem as the movie stretches on and on with really no plot. For a brief moment, Wayne's character speaks with respect about African natives, but that is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that the black members of the team are never addressed by name although they are the ones actually dealing with the animals. If you are into animal abuse, black-face, misogyny, may-November romance and two and a half hour long ordeals with zero plot, this is the movie for you!

A lot of animals suffered during the process of making this movie. You can watch them being dragged, chained and detained. I couldn't watched it longer after 50 minutes and was optimistic to be well entertained at the beginning. Some people reviewed it as a family movie. Sure - if you like going with your children in to the zoo and watching mentally burned animals walking up and down or if you having pig for Christmas dinner after you watched Babe then go for it. But if you really love animals spare yourself watching it.