When did I buy that?--Hatari! (1962)

At some point, heaven knows when, I got a movie called "Hatari!" on blu-ray and then never watched it. It stars John Wayne as a wild animal rustler in South Africa, and I probably bought it assuming it was a western, cause I really do like watching old westerns on Sunday afternoons from time to time (Get off my lawn!). I'm also pretty sure my grandfather, a Wayne fan, had it in VHS back in the day. It was either that or "McLintock" which I also haven't seen.

Anyway, I pulled out this two and a half hour epic this past Sunday to see if it was worth the blind buy. It's a Howard Hawks flick, which means that there's lots of dialogue and focus on characters, which is usually a good thing, except "Hatari!" is mostly silly. There's love triangles and feuds and arguing and fighting, and lots of wild animal rustling. That's really, after all, the point of the picture. It was shot (the color cinematography by Russell Harlan was Oscar-nominated) on location in Africa and all the rustling was actual, unscripted stuff with the actors trying to capture untrained animals. Such things are not allowed in filmmaking today, for fear of harming the creatures.

Some of the action scenes can actually be exciting, and I love how they obviously had to bleep some of Wayne's swearing. But since there's no real story or anything, the nearly three hour runtime can get a little wearying. The little dramatic episodes of supporting characters arguing and falling in love is supposed to keep things interesting, but the only subplots I found enjoyable were the ones involving Red Buttons. He plays a man nicknamed Pockets who is asked by the script to do almost everything. He comforts the weeping women, gives advice to his male comrades, plays the slapstick goof, and randomly turns out to be an amateur inventor (?) whose devices actually work (?!).

I must also mention Henry Mancini's score, which is mostly the usual African drum stuff, but includes some quirky, bouncy tunes, particularly whenever adorable animals like ostriches and baby elephants are cavorting on-screen.

"Hatari!" is sort of a forgotten flick, probably because it isn't all that great, but it has its moments and I enjoyed it more or less. It's worth a watch on a boring Sunday afternoon. Should I have bought it, though? Eh, it's more of one-watch thing.

B-