Hatari!

Hey, is that the guy who always plays Nazis? Yeah, his name is “Kurt”.

Hawks did some really bad movies towards the end of his career — I tried watching Red Line 7000 (made three years after this) a couple years ago, but had to throw in the towel — it was unwatchable tripe.

This one doesn’t have James Caan, at least.

I’m glad the animals cooperated.

But I’m sad that this bluray has been cut down to 16:9 — it was originally 1.85:1, so I’m not missing much, but still! Boo!!!

I love these kinds of shots.

This is much much much much better than Red Line 7000. It’s kinda fun and pretty cute.

See!?

So this seems to be a lighthearted romantic comedy? But in Africa? And there’s probably going to be a plot involving some action? We’re twenty minutes in, and it still feels like the movie hasn’t really started yet, but it’s very amiable.

This is pretty insane. I guess they couldn’t shoot this kind of stuff today? Which is good, because those giraffes looked pretty spooked. Tsk tsk!

(Oh yeah — this movie is about this gang of people who are capturing wildlife for a zoo.)

Heh heh. It was the 60s, man!

That’s a very friendly cheetah.

That’s supposed to really be John Wayne doing his own stunts?

But I’m starting to think that this doesn’t really have a plot? We’re over an hour in, and it’s just… these people capturing animals. And some romance going on. But the movie is 2h40m long, so I guess something’s going to happen…

p

But I guess this is just going to be this — skits in the camp while they’re taking care of animals?

Pssn’t! Pssn’t!

It’s almost fascinating how none of the black actors have a single line — not even “whoo” or “noo” or something.

I’m wondering whether there’s gonna be a dreaded Third Act where you get all the drama…

This movie is cancelled!

Double cancelled!

OK, this monkey stunt makes absolutely no sense what so ever, but it’s funny.

Oh, that ditty sounds very familiar…

Aaah:

The memorable Henry Mancini tune “Baby Elephant Walk” was written for and first appeared in Hatari!.

The film quality difference between the insets (like the above) and the actual capture shots is striking:

But still impressive:

Much of the audio in the capture sequences had to be redubbed due to John Wayne’s cursing while wrestling with the animals

Are they eating just pineapple for breakfast!? A quarter each!?

OK, I guess they didn’t know how to end the movie, so they went all out on slapstick.

I really enjoyed this film, but… it’s 160 minutes of driving around on the veldt, catching animals, interspersed with romantic skits. It’s extremely amiable… but is it a good movie?

I’ve often thought “but why do movie have to have all this conflict and stuff? Can’t it just be about fun stuff?” And this movie sort of answers that — there is no real conflict to speak of, and all the drama is supplied by them driving around among the animals…

I think this could have been tightened up a bit — but when you have all this great footage, why would you cut anything?

It’s a very silly movie. I liked it.

Hatari!. Howard Hawks. 1962. ⚄

Scarface

I’ve been watching a lot of movies from the 70s lately — it sorta happened by accident: I’ve been watching the Alan Clarke box set, and I’ve also been following movie recommendations from Hazel Flagg (which are heavy on 70s movies). And then I just started watching random 70s movies, because the 70s is a decade I’ve been avoiding slightly?

But enough’s enough. Time to watch something else for a while!

Yeah, yeah, sure…

That’s the ticket.

Before I went all 70s, I bought a stack of Howard Hawks movies I’ve never seen before. I was watching Bringing Up Baby or something yet again and I went “well, what’s with all his other movies?”

And his movies are so … indifferently available? Some aren’t at all — the big ones are obviously meticulously restored and everything, but then there’s a lot more movies that are like this one — it’s fine, but … a bit fuzzy. It’s like they upscaled the film digitally — but it’s been nicely stabilised and despeckled.

Well… I know that this is one of the most influential mafia movies. And well liked:

But I don’t quite get it. It seems pretty leaden? None of the performances are much fun, and the direction is mostly pretty pedestrian. I mean, there’s some really nice dolly shots, but there’s also a lot of scenes that look a bit clumsy.

But then there’s shots like this.

Heh heh.

Tee hee. Hawks wasn’t afraid of getting rubbed out — he’s depicting the mobsters as illiterate morons and perverts.

Well, OK, it’s starting to get pretty funny now.

OK, this is very amusing.

And it’s a pro gun control movie, too.

I know, I know, this is a classic. And there’s some really funny scenes, and there’s some really striking sequences. But on the other hand, there’s so many turgid scenes — it’s like the movie was made by two directors filming separate scenes.

It’s just not altogether there — I suspect that the reputation has been bolstered by the movie being unavailable for many years.

Scarface. Howard Hawks. 1932. ⚂

Danton’s Death

I watched a feature the other day about this — it was an interview with the cinematographer. He explained that Clarke wanted to use very long lenses for this one, so everything is filmed from across the room.

Sounds logical.

So… this is about the French revolution — Robespierre is apparently launching a crusade against people behaving immorally. Danton is part of the revolution, but not pure enough? So this piece is mostly the two characters speechifying against each other (to respective friends etc).

Nothing much is explained — I think it’s assumed that you already know how the French revolution happened in some detail.

Ian Richardson isn’t just chewing the scenery here — he’s chewing the entire arrondissement.

But it suits the role.

But I have to say that I find this a crushing bore. And I usually like this sort of thing — it’s filmed theatre, so the bombast is part of the charm. But this is just so… it’s all caricatures, and we’re meant to pelt Robespierre with tomatoes.

And I don’t have any here!

The bits where they talk directly to the camera work well.

Wanamaker is great in this.

I found myself starting to read the article on Robespierre while watching this, just to understand what was going on — because it’s not a very didactic piece at all. So, that’s not an ideal way to watch this, and perhaps it’s awesome and stuff.

But I don’t think so.

Danton’s Death. Alan Clarke. 1978. ⚂