Hatari!

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Hatari!

1962,

2h 39m,

Adventure

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Watchlist

67%

24 Reviews

Tomatometer

77%

5,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

67%

Tomatometer

24 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

A Tanganyika-based group of hunters (Red Buttons, Hardy Kruger, Gérard Blain) led by Sean Mercer (John Wayne) trap wild African animals for zoos. A curvaceous reporter (Elsa Martinelli) documents their exploits while having epic clashes with the gruff Irishman. She is initially frozen out of the testosterone-filled group until her strong-willed personality endears her to the men.

Derek Smith

Slant Magazine

Dec 31, 2024

For all of Hatari!’s built-in references to so many of Howard Hawks’s films, it’s ultimately quite unlike anything else he ever made.

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Peter John Dyer

Sight & Sound

Mar 6, 2020

That Hataril, for all its elements of self-parody, is never downright dispiriting is largely due to Hawks' tireless flair for buoyant comedy.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Mar 14, 2016

Politics take a back seat to sex, served up in a dazzling wealth of innuendo.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

May 30, 2021

3/4

[UPDATED 2025 4K + BLU-RAY REVIEW] Astonishingly, stunt performers were rarely used for the exciting sequences.

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Penelope Gilliatt

Observer (UK)

Apr 21, 2021

It is filmed with every possible cliché, and the romantic-comedy situations barge towards their targets with the delicacy of a rhino hurling itself at its dinner.

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Henry Stewart

Brooklyn Magazine

Apr 13, 2016

All dumb romance, immature jokes, (unconscious?) racism and a child's sense of adventure.

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Feb 1, 2019

The best movie score ever composed!

Jan 11, 2018

My all time favorite movie. Ultimate childhood adventure flick. John Wayne did all the action scenes. Incredible scenery. Like my own little safari!

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Albus R

Apr 24, 2017

Some of the characters are likeable (not John Wayne's), and both thumbs up for the music. The rest, not so good.

Hermione S

Mar 24, 2017

Photographer Elsa Martinelli enters a boys club of Africa-based trappers supplying animals to zoos. Although the main plotline is her romance with the boss, John Wayne, the film is more family fare than romcom as animals, including cute baby elephants, play the leading role. Authentic animal capture scenes will interest some and offend others. Light and entertaining but overlong at over two and a half hours and the Duke is a little long in the tooth to be a romantic lead.

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Howard Hawks

Director

John Wayne

Sean Mercer

Elsa Martinelli

Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro

Red Buttons

Pockets

Hardy Krüger

Kurt Muller

Gérard Blain

Charles 'Chips' Maurey

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Synopsis

A Tanganyika-based group of hunters (Red Buttons, Hardy Kruger, Gérard Blain) led by Sean Mercer (John Wayne) trap wild African animals for zoos. A curvaceous reporter (Elsa Martinelli) documents their exploits while having epic clashes with the gruff Irishman. She is initially frozen out of the testosterone-filled group until her strong-willed personality endears her to the men.

Director: Howard Hawks
Producer: Howard Hawks
Screenwriter: Leigh Brackett
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount, Malabar
Genre: Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 19, 1962, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 15, 2011
Runtime: 2h 39m

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