White Hunter, Black Heart Details

Clint Eastwood's ambitious film is a thinly veiled account of the making of John Huston's The African Queen, already well documented in books by Katharine Hepburn and screenwriter Peter Viertel. As “Huston”, Eastwood is just marvellous — aristocratic, bombastic and so obsessed with hunting and killing an elephant (not a crime but a sin in the biblical sense) that his movie-making is left on the back burner. He's a monster with enormous charm and charisma. Beautifully filmed on location in Zimbabwe, with decent representations of Bogart, Bacall, Hepburn and producer Sam Spiegel, the movie has pace, drama, a genuine sense of adventure and an astutely critical eye for the vestiges of British imperialism.

Based on a novel about John Huston making The African Queen, by a writer involved in that film, it emerges as an entertaining account of Hollywood egotism.