Neil Welch
In the early 60s, the men in an African business which catches game for zoos find themselves unexpectedly beset with romantic issues.Hatari! is a colourful, spectacular, action-packed John Wayne vehicle, directed by Howard Hawkes. The action is all animal capture, mostly with vehicles chasing fast-running game while Wayne sits in a seat over a front wheel holding a pole with a rope noose at the end of it. When the animals are actually caught, the shots are from the rear, so that you can't see the face of the man in Wayne's seat and clothing.Parallel with the action are two romances. The main one features Wayne and Elsa Martinelli, the other features the tragic young French actress Michelle Girardon and, yes, Red Buttons. Both stretch the imagination somewhat, but the film is escapist nonsense, so what does it matter?
jvance-566-20403
John Wayne plays his usual rollicking tough-but-big-hearted role to the nth degree is this rather over-long but engaging film.I have no idea how animals are obtained for a zoo but I can believe that the activities presented here are a reasonable representation of how it may have been done. If so, then wow. I'm glad someone has the nerve to do it, but I think I'll stay inside the air-conditioned safari bus - or maybe at home.The animal chase and catch scenes are extraordinary. The rhinos look a little undersized (perhaps juveniles) but they are most definitely real - and real mad. No CGI here, this is the true deal. Supposedly "hatari" is the Swahili word for danger and if so these guys are in hatari up to their necks doing this job.The characters are all fun, likable and well-portrayed. The lines are good and the interaction appears genuine. The multitude of nationalities all ending up in the same place in the middle of nowhere adds an air of wanderlust and romance to the nitty-gritty work and environment.The current atmosphere regarding animal rights would never allow for this movie to be shown widely in America today. There would be a thick protective coating of PETA members surrounding any theater daring to try. They might have a point though, the way these animals are rounded up, confined and sent off to who knows where is enough to provoke uncertainty in the most cold-hearted of us.A long movie for sure, but it moves along quite well and few of the scenes seem unnecessary or out of place. Definitely worth a look if for nothing other than the animal scenes.
Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . because most of the African animals shown in this flick have been slaughtered to extinction by ISIS terrorists since HATARI! was shot in the 1900s, just like the JURASSIC WORLD dinosaurs. And it's small wonder that these critters even made it to the 1970s, as you watch HATARI!'s "MAD MAX"-like convoys of leaded gasoline guzzling jeeps running amok all over the countryside, crashing into this species and that. Obviously, most of the animals being kidnapped by John Wayne's pirate outfit are destined for the "bush meat" market. Wayne's procurer-in-chief character--"Sean Mercer"--all but admits this, when he notes that the 500 Vervet Monkeys his crew of White Europeans has just rounded up will yield only $6,000 in aggregate--the price of meat, NOT zoo exhibits! Speaking of bush meat, Wayne is not very interested in the chick throwing herself at him here (zoo photographer "Dallas") until she's converted into a low-maintenance lover, through FGM--courtesy of the "Warusha" tribe which forcibly "adopts" her. (Though this scene, 98 minutes into HATARI!, is not presented as graphically as similar material in this year's GREEN INFERNO, Sean's reaction to Dallas' "modifications" proves her FGM is more finalized than that of INFERNO.) If this is somewhat of a HATARI! low-light, getting to hear Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" tune in two variations is the main highlight here.
AaronCapenBanner
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.
AD
