Hatari!

Hatari! is a 1962 American film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne. The title means danger in Swahili. The film presents a group of hunters who capture wild animals to later be sold to zoos, showing an interesting but outdated portrait of Africa, still dominated by non-Africans.

Hatari! was filmed in what is now northern Tanzania. Many scenes were filmed near the city of Arusha, on a Ngorongoro hunting ranch, which was owned at the time by actor Hardy Krüger. In fact, the name of the Momella Game Company group that appears silkscreened on the transport and vehicles they use, would come from the geographical area of the Momella Lakes, in the Arusha National Park.

Synopsis

A group of hunters led by Sean Mercer (John Wayne) is fulfilling the task of capturing animals of a wide variety of species in Tanzania, when Ana María D'Allesandro (Elsa Martinelli), who will be called Dallas, joins the group and who is tasked with photographing his work, and the French shooter Charles Maurey (Gerard Blain) who will be called Chips.

All of them are going to have lots of fun and adventures... and some of them also have a love story.

Plot

The film begins with the opening of the hunting season by the Momella Game Company, specifically when this group sets out to hunt a rhinoceros. In the maneuver, one of them, known as "the Indian" (Bruce Cabot) is injured, for which they will be forced to transfer him to the nearest hospital, five hours away. It will be then when "Chips" (Gerard Blain) comes into action, a French shooter who asks them for a job and who will act as a blood donor for the wounded man.

After celebrating in town for having obtained the blood to save their friend, they return to his ranch, where they meet Dallas, a photographer from the Basel Zoo who would come to Africa to record the animals of the institution from the moment of capture. At first the Company refuses to accompany them, but eventually they accept.

These had a blackboard and a sheet at the ranch with all the requests made by zoos and circuses for the hunting season, so the successive scenes will be intended to show the capture of many of the requested species: giraffes, zebras, monkeys, impalas, buffalo. To hunt the latter, the company will have to make a five-day trip in search of them, heading to drier areas.

On one of these journeys, one of the cars is forced to stop to fix a breakdown, and it is then that the Maasai tribe is shown and the large well they have to feed their cattle. It will be a moment in which that colonialist vision is reflected, since the protagonist, Sean Mercer, will say “it's funny, they work all day raising the water but when it has to be repaired they don't touch it, they hire another tribe to do it. They are too proud ranchers to dig.”

In another of the trips, the Momella Game Company will pass through another African tribe, about which they do not make specific reference, in this one they find a kind of guardavanas that the night before had been forced to shoot an elephant at the Try this to attack one of the huts in the town. While in conversation with him, a baby elephant will appear that would be the daughter of the deceased elephant. Dallas manages to get Sean to allow him to keep the little pachyderm since, if he didn't, it was going to be sacrificed.

When it comes to dealing with hand hunting, Pockets (Red Buttons) will make use of a new tool invented by him that consisted of a rocket with a tied net that, when launched, would lock all the monkeys in the tree. Thus, the rest of the protected equipment to avoid bites would enter the cloth and hunt them down.

Dallas will have to experience a moment of cultural contrast because the Barushi tribe, upon seeing the relationship that it had developed with their elephants, call it "mama tembo". Thus, they will do a kind of ceremony in which they dress her in clothes and necklaces typical of her ethnic group; in addition to braiding her hair and painting her skin brown.

The last hunt, concluding with the fateful beginning, will be that of a rhinoceros. This scene stands out for its difficulty (bearing in mind that all the scenes were shot without doubles and without sets) because in it it will be seen as a result of this realism and this direct, once the animal had been caught it escapes, having to recapture it.

After this latest hunt, everyone but Dallas head out to celebrate the town. This one who had developed a love relationship with Sean decides to leave the next morning. The Momella Game Company seeing how they had broken her ringleader's heart, Sean Mercer decides to try to prevent her from returning to Europe, and as if it were one of her hunts, they chase her all over the world. Arusha city.

Cast

The film brings together various characters from different parts of the world.

Awards and nominations

In 1963 she was nominated for the Oscars, and won second place at the Golden Laurel Awards in the "Top action drama" category.

Historical framework of the facts

The Howard Hawks-directed film takes place in the Tanganyika region, as seen in the film's opening credits. This region, during the XIX century and with the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) became part of Germany, which he renamed it German East Africa. It will be after World War I when it comes under British rule.

The independence of the region will be achieved thanks to the TANU (Tanganyka African National Union) who won the polls in the first elections of 1958-1959, achieving the independence of Tanganyika in 1961. In 1964 the constitution of Tanzania will take place, when Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite after the fall of the Zanzibar Nationalist Party.

This decade will also see the development of a trend to protect the region's biodiversity, led by the German Bernhard Grizimek. Above all, it should be related to the denunciation of the looting of species and materials that was being made from certain regions.

The practice of extracting animals from Africa to take them to Europe was a common act that occurred from Mesopotamia, passing through Rome and Greece until the Modern and Contemporary Ages. It will be at the end of the XVIII century when this practice rises due to the creation of public mánageries, which would have their origin in the private collections of the European monarchies. The heirs of the public mánageries will be the zoos, although these will be more related to the production and scientific research of the century XIX and XX.

This phenomenon caused serious effects on African biodiversity since many species were depleted. Today organizations such as WAZA are trying to establish conservation plans for these animals in order to amend their mistakes in the past.