No.53 : War Dance (2007)

War Dance at the IMDb

‘War Dance’ is an Oscar nominated documentary about the civil war in Uganda and, more specifically, about a group of children trying to win their National Music Championships despite their horrific ordeals.

Although it lost the Oscar to ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’, ‘War Dance’ was a worthy contender; possibly too worthy as it is heavy going. The film follows a group of mostly orphans who live in the town of Potongo, Northern Uganda. The children are introduced separately and they each talk to the camera in turn recounting their own experiences of the civil war.


All the tales are terrible with one young lad recounting the night he had to bludgeon a farmer to death with his hoe to save his own life. Others had similar treatments of kidnap and abuse. Juxtaposed against theses horrors were their present day trials in a government camp, such as one girl who was almost a slave to her bitch of an aunt.

All of the children have the same ambition - to win the regional qualifier so that the can go to the National Championship in Kampala. The road is long and arduous but with the help of some seasoned professionals they up their game and get to the big city. The contest is a major event and the kids feel marginalized as being from the north they are seen by some as inferior. Given what they have experienced it’s not surprising that they shrug off such slurs and put on a top show. Will it be enough to win the cup and heal their community at the same time?

This is a hard film to enjoy. The triumph of the human spirit is one thing but it’s depressing to hear so many horrific tales. It beggars belief that the government put so many resources into a song contest when rebels are freely raping and killing anyone they choose. Obviously the kids don’t mind as their focus and determination is admirable.

With the best will in the world I found it hard to enjoy the singing and dancing and when that is at least 50% of the film you know the marks are going to suffer. It’s not that the people aren’t talented, I’m sure they are, it’s just people yelling and stamping in endless similar songs isn’t my thing.

It would be churlish to say this film is nothing short of a triumph and the spirit and message of it ain’t be ignored. I just didn’t really enjoy it. Sorry kids!

Best Bit : The grim tales were jaw-dropping

‘W’ Score 13/23

No.30 : White Hunter Black Heart (1990)

White Hunter Black Heart at the IMDb

In this thinly disguised account of the shooting of ‘The African Queen’ Clint Eastwood plays an indebted director on a quest to shoot an elephant whilst on location in Africa.

Clint’s character, John Wilson (nee Huston), is a single minded idealist who is happy to stand up for the natives and Jews while simultaneously living high on the hog off his producers. An initial interest in big game hunting becomes an obsession as a large tusked elephant keeps avoiding his sights. Elsewhere the production begins to flounder due to the weather and his indifference.

As the film draws to a close the stars are on set and ready to shoot, but an elephant has been spotted nearby and tragedy is sure to follow.

It’s unusual that you can summarise the plot of a two hour film in little over a paragraph, but the beauty of this production is that it is character and not plot lead. Clint goes against type as the bombastic Jones who talks ten to the dozen and picks the odd fight on the side of justice. To temper him we have Jeff Fahey’s screenwriter who sees the director as selfish and obsessive, but also his access to Hollywood.

The sweeping vistas and wild life are beautifully shot and the evocation of 1950’s colonial Africa is great. The secondary cast is mostly British and it was fun to see who was going to pop up next - I counted at least two from both ‘Auf Wiedersen Pet’ and ‘Our Friends in the North’ and one from ‘Taggart’.

It was strange, and possibly diverting, that everything was one step removed from what you would expect with ‘The African Queen’ becoming ‘The African Trader’ and Bogie and Hepburn dead ringers, in all but name. Whether this was due to copyright or artistic reasons I don’t know but it did reduce the effect somewhat.

It’s always tough to see Clint as anything but Blondie or Dirty Harry but he made a good attempt at his character’s affected English accent, and despite all his faults he succeeded making him a likable yet flawed person.

This is one of the few Clint Eastwood films I’d missed first time around possibly because I supposed it was about hunting, a subject I have no interest in. I’m glad this quest drew me too it, as although it is about hunting hardly a shot is fired and the recreation of the classic ‘African Queen‘ was first rate. Give it a go; it certainly hits the target. Oh dear.

Best Bit : The monkey stealing the script was a hoot.

‘W’ Score : 20/23