"Roots of Heaven" was an interesting idea, but executed with enough flatulence and hot air to have been a major cause of the increase in Earth's greenhouse gases.
The story of a man, and a small group of followers, who go on what becomes an illegal crusade to stop the slaughter of the African elephant, should have made an inspiring film.
There have been plenty of reasons given why such a worthy project turned out so lacklustre, but I feel the main reason is not necessarily the accepted ones of confused story lines and undefined characters - the problem is more in your face.
The film is full of eccentrics: loud, bombastic, opinionated and declarative ones, and eccentric characters are rarely appealing or even entertaining.
John Huston made some of the best films of all time: "The Maltese Falcon", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Moby Dick" and about a dozen others. They all featured 'larger-than-life' characters, however the 'larger-than-life' characters got away from him on this one and actually became annoying.
Of course Huston may not have noticed what was happening because he was probably a bit like that himself, and often had a hand in the scripts.
He and scriptwriter Romain Cary (the author of the novel) created a character, Morel, played by an uncharismatic Trevor Howard, who seemed to have a number of variations on his expansive character throughout the cast; just look at the performances of Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Frederick Ledebur, Oliver Hussenot, Gregoire Aslan, Francis de Wolff, and Eddie Albert - definitely a fail in first-term screen writing class.
The film looks good when it steps outside with fabulous shots of elephants and Africa, but of course the cast and crew famously suffered for that authenticity. The interiors back in the London studio were another matter, and look over-lit and fake.
Although Juliette Gréco was apparently forced on the film because she was producer Darryl Zanuck's mistress at the time, her understated performance was a relief from all the histrionics surrounding her.
Like many reviewers I feel that "Roots of Heaven" is fascinating more for what went on behind the camera than in front of it. The good news was that Huston bounced back - "The Man Who Would Be King" and "Fat City", were impressive ways to wind up a Quixotic and sometimes chaotic career.
The story of a man, and a small group of followers, who go on what becomes an illegal crusade to stop the slaughter of the African elephant, should have made an inspiring film.
There have been plenty of reasons given why such a worthy project turned out so lacklustre, but I feel the main reason is not necessarily the accepted ones of confused story lines and undefined characters - the problem is more in your face.
The film is full of eccentrics: loud, bombastic, opinionated and declarative ones, and eccentric characters are rarely appealing or even entertaining.
John Huston made some of the best films of all time: "The Maltese Falcon", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Moby Dick" and about a dozen others. They all featured 'larger-than-life' characters, however the 'larger-than-life' characters got away from him on this one and actually became annoying.
Of course Huston may not have noticed what was happening because he was probably a bit like that himself, and often had a hand in the scripts.
He and scriptwriter Romain Cary (the author of the novel) created a character, Morel, played by an uncharismatic Trevor Howard, who seemed to have a number of variations on his expansive character throughout the cast; just look at the performances of Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Frederick Ledebur, Oliver Hussenot, Gregoire Aslan, Francis de Wolff, and Eddie Albert - definitely a fail in first-term screen writing class.
The film looks good when it steps outside with fabulous shots of elephants and Africa, but of course the cast and crew famously suffered for that authenticity. The interiors back in the London studio were another matter, and look over-lit and fake.
Although Juliette Gréco was apparently forced on the film because she was producer Darryl Zanuck's mistress at the time, her understated performance was a relief from all the histrionics surrounding her.
Like many reviewers I feel that "Roots of Heaven" is fascinating more for what went on behind the camera than in front of it. The good news was that Huston bounced back - "The Man Who Would Be King" and "Fat City", were impressive ways to wind up a Quixotic and sometimes chaotic career.