When a non-fatal heart attack kept James Agee from completing the script he and John Huston were adapting from C.S. Forester’s THE AFRICAN QUEEN/’51, Peter Viertel (a child of Hollywood Huston had worked with on WE WERE STRANGERS/’49 and would work with again) came on to polish as necessary and rework the hasty ending Huston had made a stab at. Hard to know just how much of the final script was Viertel’s (only Agee is credited), but probably a fair amount. On the other hand, Viertel’s lightly fictionalized behind-the-scenes novel of his experience, largely during pre-production with Huston avoiding prep & rewrites to go off on safari in Africa, specifically to ‘bag’ an elephant, became a minor classic of cinema literature. Obsessed like some modern day Captain Ahab on pursuing this ill-advised/inauspicious hunt, Viertel’s portrait of Huston (here called John Wilson) is one-third admirable, one third bewildering, one-third self-centered, terrifying stubbornness and one-third glory-seeking despicable. (Correct, for a man of Huston’s size & self-destructive fever you need four thirds . . . as long as others are paying, and not just in time & money.) A great theme for a Hollywood-on-location story, but Clint Eastwood’s film, a major flop in its day, can’t get a handle on the man. In spite of solid directoral craftsmanship, Eastwood’s acting misses the expansive quality Huston played on to get away with bad behavior, and it consistently stops the film cold. Eastwood's effectiveness with a minimalist approach & narrowed focus lost when he tries to play large. Not that he doesn’t try, he does . . . that’s the problem.*
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *You only have to imagine 1990 Sean Connery in the part. He wouldn’t have had to try.
DOUBLE-BILL/READ ALL ABOUT IT: For a grand portrait of Huston at the time (irreplaceable filmmaker/impossible man) try Katharine Hepburn’s charmingly eccentric memoir THE MAKING OF THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Then watch the movie.
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