Claudio Carvalho The egocentric, stubborn and grumpy Hollywood director John Wilson (Clint Eastwood) invites his friend Pete Verrill (Jeff Fahey) to write the screenplay of his next movie that will be a masterpiece in his opinion. He convinces the producer Paul Landers (George Dzundza) that the movie must be shot in Africa and they travel to the continent. Once in Africa, John becomes obsessed to hunt an specific elephant and neglects his cast and crew prioritizing the hunting with the native Kivu (Boy Mathias Chuma). "White Hunter Black Heart" is an underrated fictional movie directed by Clint Eastwood. The character John Wilson is based on the director John Huston. Clint Eastwood has an amazing work performing a character with strong personality and stubbornness. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Coração de Caçador" ("Hunter Heart")

JoeB131 That for some reason won't call him John Huston. So they call him "John Wilson" and he's directing a film called "African Trader" right after World War II, that just happens to use the same boat Humphrey Bogart used in "The African Queen".but it isn't about making the movie, it's about the director's obsession with shooting an elephant.It's an elegant movie with some great dialog, and Clint Eastwood, trying to escape his type-casting as Clint Eastwood, does some fine work here. But there are places where the movie drags, and Clint just can't help himself.It's elegantly shot and nice to look at, but not a great film.

writers_reign This was strangely unsatisfying. Unlike a lot of people I actually enjoy novels and films about filmmaking despite the fact that most of them - think Mank's The Barefoot Contessa which goes astray once it abandons the filmmaking for the travails of Ava Gardner's marital problems with an impotent husband - are flawed. Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and Minnelli's The Bad And The Bautiful have still to be equalled let alone eclipsed and WHBH is not, alas, up to the task. Before he published the novel Peter Viertel was advised by several friends not least his best friend, Irwin Shaw, to give the characters names that were not transparent - John Wilson, Peter Verrill, etc - but failed to heed it. Whilst it's true enough that insiders would get it no matter what the characters were called - after all how many charismatic eccentric movie directors shot a major movie with two iconic stars on location in Africa in the early fifties (if you discount Mogambo, which had Three major stars anyway). Clint Eastwood is a highly competent actor-director, no question but not this time around.

inspectors71 And I'm not talking painting. White Hunter, Black Heart is an admirable failure, a film that tries vainly and unsuccessfully to peer into the complex genius of an artist. I call WHBH admirable because Clint Eastwood could not possibly have believed this movie would be a commercial success, yet he made it anyway. It is an actors' movie, a film designed to allow the director and his crew to experiment with a serious subject-and consequential themes--without worrying about the commercial side of the production.The movie is a failure because even with all the hard work from cast and crew, we ultimately don't much care if the movie on screen, a thinly veiled African Queen, gets made. From Eastwood's character on down, there just isn't an emotional bonding that makes the viewer stick to the screen with an adhesive caring. Instead, we get two hours of Clint doing a more humorous than serious John Huston impression.I didn't enjoy White Hunter, Black Heart. I didn't hate it either. Instead, I observed it, the way I observe some impressionist paintings. I can see the use of color, the vibrancy of the brush strokes, the composition, but the whole never gels.A lot of work with no heart-felt payoff.