White Hunter Black Heart (1990)

A film about the legendary director John Huston's obsession with hunting an elephant during his filming of "The African Queen." To provide context, I will repost that classic next. - JW

The world famous movie Director John Wilson (Clint Eastwood) has gone to Africa to make his next movie. He is an obstinate, contrary director who'd rather hunt elephants than take care of his crew or movie. He has become obsessed with one particular elephant and cares for nothing else.

From IMDB:

9/10
An African safari into happy-go-lucky machismo.

A maverick film director John Wilson seeks to make his next film "The African Queen" in Africa, but a couple weeks before he and his crew leave. Writer Pete Verill is brought onto the project the polish up the script. Verill also learns that's there more to Wilson wanting to go to Africa and that's to hunt down an elephant. When they arrive in Uganda, the obsession has overwhelmed his mind, as now the film is secondary to his personal goal. The production Manager is becoming increasingly worried that Verill tries to convince him not to pull out, but Wilson isn't making it any better.

You got to admire Eastwood for taking a big step out of his comfort zone to launch into the shoes to play one of Hollywood's larger than life directors, John Huston. Despite not using his name (as the name used is John Wilson), it's loosely based on the novel of Peter Viertel, which follows the circumstances surrounding the filming of "The African Queen (1950)". It's has nothing to do with the making of that film, but the sharply innovative and literate screenplay by Peter Viertel, James Bridges and Burt Kennedy strikes up an absorbing tale of egotistically proud obsession. Eastwood's highly tuned and impressively bold direction gives the film a classy polish, if majestic touch. Giving it weight was beautiful location photography. The pacing of it is rather relaxed; despite some slow patches I never found it to fall flat because of first-rate editing by Joel Cox. I wouldn't go out of my way to call it extremely exciting, but Eastwood's ruggedly well-defined direction makes sure it keeps you watching and ends off on a moving note. No doubt, this is one of Eastwood's most excellent exercises in directing, but his sincerely effective and robust portrait of a driven, self-centred film-maker was extremely good. Especially since, it's pretty different in vain to most characters he plays. There's nothing complex to the simple laced story, but there are many interesting facets rose within the thoughtfully balanced material and evening it out is some wryly crackling wit. The central protagonist who was always wearing a grin and showering us with charismatically vocal mannerisms only seems to fascinate us more with his cryptic free spirit. I see some complaints about the overall downbeat outcome the film ends with, but this only adds to the irony to what's discussed early on in the feature. The closing credits are captured on a hauntingly stunning backdrop. The rest of the cast may lay in the shadow of Eastwood, but the likes of Jeff Fahey ( who impeccably plays the idealistically pleasant writer Pete Verill) George Dzundza ( the concerned producer Paul Landers) make for good sparing partners for Wilson. The congenial Maria Berenson plays Kathern Hepburn under the name of Kay Gibson.

This epic feature is a marvelous rarity that potently covers all bases and leaves you wanting more. A excellent stepping stone, which would lead to "Unforgiven". Highly Recommended.

https://www3.zoechip.com/movie/white-hunter-black-heart-11838