Hatari! (1962) Reviews

The photography is super, showing wild animals and what they can do to dodge being captured or maybe attacked. You feel like your riding in the vehicles. Very realistic, well paced story. Never a dull moment, the women in it were great. The guys not bad either.
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Hatari won't ever be accused of being John Wayne's best movie, but it's very different from his normal cowboy roles, and it's a solid entertaining film to boot. The star of the film is technically the African Landscape and the animals. You get alot of those long scenes involving the wild lands. Also involved is a decent love story, some funny dialogue, and a solid performance as always from John Wayne himself. The ending is a little corny with the elephant chase scene and the bugle calls, but it all works and is a fun safe film for the whole family. Be aware, it is very very long. Too long. This could have been wrapped up in 90 minunes, but instead it goes 160 minutes. I'm sure it was intentionally long, but it wears on you a bit.
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This is not the usual John Wayne film! This is very different in as much as Wayne shares the limelight : comedy by Red Buttons, utterly enchanting score by Henry Mancini (who never did any other Wayne films) and adventure and plenty of action with an all star international cast. Elsa Martinelli is hardly a suitable romantic interest for the Duke, but he pulls it off! Energetic film that hits high notes on all levels!
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