“Hatari!” is a movie made in 1962 by the American director, Howard Hawks. Meaning “danger” in Swahili, this is an adventurous comic venture articulating on John Wayne playing Sean Mercer and his troupe, (consisting of people from different countries), which includes Hardy Krüger as Kurt Muller and Red Buttons as Pockets. Spicing up this drama is a little romance brought in the form of Elsa Martinelli as Anna Maria Dallas D’Allesandro, an attractive wildlife photographer.
The whole movie revolves around Wayne and his gang who ramble in the barren terrain of present Tanzania, to capture animals and sell them to zoos. Throughout the movie the characters give chase in trucks and jeeps with cages, nets, lassos and dope pellets to hunt down animals that are wild and undomesticated. This resulted in a few accidents to the actors, but finally produced a visual treat taking into account the absence of high-end tools, equipment and know-how in the 60’s. What is really mind-blowing is the expertise, deftness, skill, dexterous precision and co-ordination displayed by the actors and technicians as they track down and catch animals in the wilderness of the African plains.
Hatari! has a weak screenplay, as it primarily concentrates on the relation between tribals and the whites and on the effect of the latter’s presence in Africa. But it more than makes up for it with its incredible stunts, cinematography and music. The highlight of this film is the charming Henry Mancini tune, “Baby Elephant Walk” which is remembered even to this day. What’s more is that as the animals would not always “act” when needed, the director got natives to make the animal noises! Hatari!’s formula for success? Wayne+ Red Buttons= One hell of an action packed romantic comedy!