Cosmoline
Member
I picked up this interesting looking documentary Ruark put together chronicling a major safari he undertook in 1953. There were apparently distribution problems and the thing never saw a wide release stateside. Audiences of the day did not want a thoughtful, entirely realistic portrayal of an actual safari. They wanted Tarzan and lions charging at the screen. This was the cinematic age of B-Grade monster flicks and cheesy 3-D (sounds familiar actually). Thankfully, Safari Press found a print a few years ago and has published it on DVD.
I usually stay well away from hunting DVD's. They tend to be overblown, loud and obnoxious sales pitches. This one is very different, though. This was shortly after WWII when middle income Americans were first starting to have enough money to actually go to Africa to hunt. Ruark was of this mold. He's neither a macho Hemingway nor a snotty colonial. He freely admits to be scared half to death more than once, and seems to have a lot of respect for the various tribal groups he encounters.
Much of the film focuses on the day-to-day life of the expedition and considerable attention is given over to the work of the native support staff. Pretty surprising considering the 1950's vintage of the piece, but Ruark seemed to understand that they were the ones who actually made the safari function. There's also a lot of footage of the day-to-day meat bag hunting done to feed the crew. The actual trophy hunts are far more rare and often unsuccessful.
If you get a chance, this is a really interesting and detailed examination of African big game hunting during what was probably its very last golden age narrated by one of the best hunting writers of his generation. His own life took a bad turn shortly after this, so we don't have very much from Ruark to start with. This film should be considered a key part of his contribution to big game literature.
I usually stay well away from hunting DVD's. They tend to be overblown, loud and obnoxious sales pitches. This one is very different, though. This was shortly after WWII when middle income Americans were first starting to have enough money to actually go to Africa to hunt. Ruark was of this mold. He's neither a macho Hemingway nor a snotty colonial. He freely admits to be scared half to death more than once, and seems to have a lot of respect for the various tribal groups he encounters.
Much of the film focuses on the day-to-day life of the expedition and considerable attention is given over to the work of the native support staff. Pretty surprising considering the 1950's vintage of the piece, but Ruark seemed to understand that they were the ones who actually made the safari function. There's also a lot of footage of the day-to-day meat bag hunting done to feed the crew. The actual trophy hunts are far more rare and often unsuccessful.
If you get a chance, this is a really interesting and detailed examination of African big game hunting during what was probably its very last golden age narrated by one of the best hunting writers of his generation. His own life took a bad turn shortly after this, so we don't have very much from Ruark to start with. This film should be considered a key part of his contribution to big game literature.
