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")

"White Hunter Black Heart" is a thinly veiled film about John Huston and the filming of his classic, "The African Queen". However, I have no idea how much of this is true and how much was fancy. I do know that Huston had a reputation for bullying actors (something that, in one case, resulted in John Wayne kicking the famous director's butt) but how much of the film is him and how much isn't, I have no idea. Apparently, Katharine Hepburn thought the film was NOT accurate.

The film begins in Britain before John Wilson (John Huston...played by Clint Eastwood) began principal work on his film. He brings an excellent writer there to collaborate on the script and much of the picture is seen through this naive writer's eyes (Pete Verrill played by Jeff Fahey). The story then moves to Africa where the pair scout locations and ready for the arrival of the others. However, inexplicably, Wilson focuses on everything but the film...and especially is obsessed with hunting a bull elephant. Even once the crew and cast arrive...Wilson is willing to hold up production just so he can do the manly dead...blast some poor elephant in the face with his rifle.

The acting and script are both very enjoyable. Again, however, I have no idea how close this is to truth. But it is, nevertheless well made and entertaining...though not exactly the sort of thing Eastwood's fans might expect (hence its poor box office returns).

If what I saw in this film was a sample of John Huston's behavior than I don't know how he lasted as long as he did in the film industry. This film based on a novel by Peter Viertel purports to show some of the difficulties in getting Huston to settle down and make the African Queen.

White Hunter, Black Heart will never go down as one of Clint Eastwood's better projects. According to the film, protagonist John Wilson is having a touch of Hemingway, he's in Africa and what do they do in Africa, but go on safari. Eastwood's made his mind up that he's got to go toe to toe with a bull elephant before shooting it.

All this is chronicled by Jeff Fahey playing the author who narrates the film and from whose eyes we see all the action. And studio boss George Dzundza is about to tear the hair from his head with all the delays and Eastwood's procrastination. Dzundza is almost a caricature of the Jewish studio moguls of the time, but frankly my sympathies were with him. In real life he'd have canned Eastwood and brought in another director to get the film made.

This was an important step for the American film industry. 20 years earlier with Trader Horn MGM shot that one with all kinds of problems shooting there in the tropics by people who weren't used to it. The African Queen and King Solomon's Mines set a new standard because the public did not want to see cheap back lot jungle sets any longer. So Dzundza has a lot riding on it.

I have to say that this particular Clint Eastwood project did not please me.