WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART (1990) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, George Dzundza,
Marisa Berenson, Charlotte Cornwell, Timothy Spall,
Boy Matthias Chuma, Alun Armstrong, Richard Vanstone
Clint Eastwood plays a larger-than-life Hollywood director named John Wilson (think John Huston), who goes off to Africa to shoot a picture (think "The African Queen"), but determined to shoot an elephant first. There are layers and layers of artifice in this, a movie based on a novel about the making of a movie based on a novel, and Eastwood, appropriating just enough of Huston's distinctive drawl and lose-limbed body language to make the connection obvious, gives his most expansive performance. It's a departure, both behind the camera and in front of it, and whether or not it entirely works, Clint's never done anything else quite like it. The final shot, a closeup with one spoken word followed by a cut, is a twisted joke, the movie-making equivalent of point-blank nihilism.
