Review of Hatari! (1962) by Eric L — 03 Feb 2011

Here comes the hatred from my fellow classmates, but I really enjoyed Hatari! It was full of innocent fun and goofiness. The movie is probably much more exciting because we know they are real animals being used and real high speed chases with real dangers.

I'm sure I wouldn't have been as entertained if the movie was full of CGI and no real adventure. Yes, John Wayne's character is a bit of a sexist, but they never say it's a good thing.

I felt like Hawks was playing it off for laughs. Dallas was such a great character. When she came onto Sean was a great scene. "How do you like to kiss?" As for the harming of animals, what was the bad treatment? The monkeys was the only bad scene I could think of.

I felt awful by the way they were ripping them from the trees and throwing them in the cages. But their suits to get them with the wire hats were funny. There really isn't much plot to Hatari! The story goes that a group of people are trying to get animals in Africa that the San Diego zoo wants.

Along the way an Italian journalist comes by wanting to document everything and Sean doesn't want a woman around. This is supposed to cover 2 1/2 hours. The chase scenes in between the story is what keeps the excitement up, and the playfulness between the characters makes you care about the adventure.

I laughed every time a new baby elephant arrived with Dallas. Right away we knew what the conversation was going to be like with Sean. And Buttons was such a charming character. He should be old and creepy for wanting Brandy, but I liked him so much that I was rooting for him.

Plus he is a better match for her than Kurt or the frenchman. The last rhino capture in the end was so tense. It was excellent to see Hawks tell them to keep going with the shoot even though it actually got loose in real life.

Knowing this before watching it made the scene that much more exciting. Perhaps it's a little long, but the film is charming enough to keep you going. I had a long day of exams, yet I still was awake for the entire picture.