The Roots of Heaven (1958)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.1/10   

Director:

John Huston

Escritores:

Romain Gary (novel)
Romain Gary (screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

15 octubre 1958 (USA)

Género:

Aventura | Drama

Plot:

In Fort Lamy, French Equitorial Africa, idealist Morel launches a one-man campaign to preserve the African elephant from extinction...

Plot Keywords:

Elephant | Africa | Foreign Language Adaptation | Based On Novel

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Roots of Heaven: A muddled Script?

Reparto

Errol Flynn	...	Forsythe
Juliette Gréco	...	Minna (as Juliette Greco)
Trevor Howard	...	Morel
Eddie Albert	...	Abe Fields
Orson Welles	...	Cy Sedgewick
Paul Lukas	...	Saint Denis
Herbert Lom	...	Orsini
Grégoire Aslan	...	Habib
André Luguet	...	Governor
Friedrich von Ledebur	...	Peer Qvist (as Friedrich Ledebur)
Edric Connor	...	Waitari
Olivier Hussenot	...	Baron
Pierre Dudan	...	Major Schölscher
Marc Doelnitz	...	De Vries
Francis De Wolff	...	Father Farque (as Francis de Wolff)

También conocida como:

Las raíces del cielo (Spain) [es]

Duración:

121 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Clasificación:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:6 (f)

Locaciones de Filmación:

Sarh, Chad

Compañía:

Darryl F. Zanuck Productions

Trivialidades:

Terrible heat and sickness took their toll on the cast and crew. The 130 people had 920 sick calls during the filming.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in "Bullpitt!: Too Many Teds (#2.8)" (2008)

Roots of Heaven: A muddled Script?

Have lately been reading Zolotow's Book about Billy Wilder wherein he relates the following: Wilder encountered by chance Romain Cary in John Huston's office and told him(in so many words) that he didn't think the shooting script for "Roots," was very good. Naturally, Cary was less than thrilled with this remark and riposted with several remarks of his own that were probably less than well thought out. I've always been a fan of Wilder and respected(nay, admired)most of his work; obviously feel the same about Huston and "Roots," so how does one "digest," all this,ie what's the point? No doubt, there's some problems with the script. It does have a on site improvised feel to it-when we see Errol Flynn on screen, the dysfunction's palpable-which shouldn't be all that much of a bad thing. After all, Wilder himself usually started production with most of the script still in his head, so why the problem. Probably because "Roots," is about people searching for something-if the title hadn't been retired with Robert Ruark's novel and film,also about African themes-Something of Value. Morell, one of the few in the film who's entirely clear about what's real and valuable in this life, knows that it's the animals that need protecting and conserving and sometimes not the people. Muddled perhaps? Probably, but clearly at odds with 50's era sentiment. Still, after all this time(64 maybe, since I first saw it NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies)the visual ambience holds up admirably as does Malcolm Arnold's score-as transcendent as anything he's ever written for film. I wish it were available on VHS.