Synopsis
Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.
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Cast
- Clint EastwoodJohn Wilson
- Jeff FaheyPete Verrill
- Charlotte CornwellMiss Wilding
- George DzundzaPaul Landers
- Alun ArmstrongRalph Lockhart
- Norman LumsdenButler George
- Edward Tudor-PoleReissar
- Roddy Maude-RoxbyThompson
- Richard WarwickBasil Fields
- Marisa BerensonKay Gibson
Recommendations
- 88
Slant Magazine
White Hunter, Black Heart finds Eastwood reaching a peak in the fields of both film direction and acting. - 80
Chicago Reader
It's a devastating portrait of self-deceiving obsession, and a notable improvement on Viertel's book in terms of economy and focus. - 80
Time Out
Ably aided by a fine cast and Jack Green's no-nonsense photography, Eastwood constructs a marvellously pacy, suspenseful movie which is deceptively easy on both eye and ear. - 80
Variety
Clint Eastwood's film isn't an African adventure epic, as those unaware of Peter Viertel's 1953 book may surmise from the title. It's an intelligent, affectionate study of an obsessive American film director who, while working on a film in colonial Africa, becomes sidetracked by his compulsion to hunt elephants. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
In the early scenes of White Hunter, Black Heart, Eastwood fans are likely to be distracted to hear Huston's words and vocal mannerisms in Eastwood's mouth, and to see Huston's swagger and physical bravado. Then the performance takes over, and the movie turns into one of the more thoughtful films ever made about the conflicts inside an artist. - 75
Rolling Stone
The film is talky and often stilted. But Eastwood’s compassion for the character, warts and all, feels genuine. His performance, like the movie, is a high-wire act that remains fascinating even when it falters. - 70
The New Yorker
Eastwood’s subject is wasted lives and wasted talent; Wilson’s charisma and Hollywood’s money prove irresistible, and their sheer power brings noteworthy results—but they emerge from a needless vortex of ruin. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
White Hunter is an ambitious and intriguing project that never amounts to anything more than the sum of its parts--a trait shared by many of Eastwood's other major project as an independent filmmaker, Bird.
