If anyone thinks this film is racist because of the main story (a defenseless man is chased through the jungle by nine (then eight, then seven...) African pursuers), I can't help them. However, one should be forewarned that, after the provocation of not paying a tithe to the local chief leads to a mass slaughter of the hero's safari group, a few survivors are each executed in some of the most gruesome (if inventive) ways you can see in a mainstream film. I won't "spoil" all of them, but the man encased in clay with a tube in his mouth so he can breath while being baked to death on a rotisserie was pretty disturbing.
And here's a question I think someone needs to answer: has any known group in Africa ever actually committed the types of executions shown in the film? If not, then I would have to say that the makers were expecting us to believe some very awful things about people we've never met, and I have a hard time getting past the racist implications of that. (If the killings were authentic, though, I have no sympathy for the characters committing them at all.)
The final salute between the defeated leader and the hero was absurd, I thought, and kind of gratuitous. The provocation leading to the slaughter and chase was miniscule, and can hardly be a credible catalyst for the implied mutual respect of these exchanged gestures. (The same idea was carried off more convincingly and more movingly in "Zulu," made two years earlier.) But, after the grisly opening and until the silly ending, the chase scenes are pretty good, if not always believable. (The hero wins too many battles with weapons he's never used, against people who should be experts with the same things. I dunno, maybe that's racist, too?)
Anyway, if you can stand to see a man cooked to death, you might like this movie. I wouldn't let anyone squeamish or innocent see it, though.
And here's a question I think someone needs to answer: has any known group in Africa ever actually committed the types of executions shown in the film? If not, then I would have to say that the makers were expecting us to believe some very awful things about people we've never met, and I have a hard time getting past the racist implications of that. (If the killings were authentic, though, I have no sympathy for the characters committing them at all.)
The final salute between the defeated leader and the hero was absurd, I thought, and kind of gratuitous. The provocation leading to the slaughter and chase was miniscule, and can hardly be a credible catalyst for the implied mutual respect of these exchanged gestures. (The same idea was carried off more convincingly and more movingly in "Zulu," made two years earlier.) But, after the grisly opening and until the silly ending, the chase scenes are pretty good, if not always believable. (The hero wins too many battles with weapons he's never used, against people who should be experts with the same things. I dunno, maybe that's racist, too?)
Anyway, if you can stand to see a man cooked to death, you might like this movie. I wouldn't let anyone squeamish or innocent see it, though.