John Huston's The African Queen might be the best war film that I have ever seen. Despite its almost entire lack of typical war-related content, this film, at its core, is just a human tale of doing the right thing during a country's time of need. While I was expecting a much darker or dull tale of a boat captain fighting against the Germans, what I ended up with was a beautiful if not simplistic story of love in the time of war. There might not be too much enthralling substance or cutthroat action in much of the script, but there is just enough to distinguish this as a much more well-developed and purposeful film of this era about the Great War. With two incredible leading performances and surprisingly thrilling cinematography and editing as well, this movie is the perfect combination of adventure, comedy, and romance.
In the midst of WWI, Charlie Allnutt (Humphrey Bogart) is a mildly alcoholic fishing captain that commandeers the African Queen, an older but intensely reliable riverboat. As the Germans invade Africa taking many of their people as soldiers and the brother of a pair of missionaries dies, Charlie rescues the sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) and together they set out on the ocean to attack an incoming German ship, falling in love along the way. My favorite aspect of this film is how incredibly simplistic the script is. Adapted from the novel by C.S. Forester and written by Huston and James Agee, The African Queen takes what could be a much more divisive and arguable political premise and boils it down to a simple tale of adventure and romance. This tale of war could have easily been told as a much more exciting and explosion-fueled action film, but instead was given its entire focus on the relationship and dialogue between these two leads. This different perspective on the war and how it affected everyone differently, no matter where you were from, was such an interesting idea that I'm glad Huston was able to effectively explore. This is assisted greatly by Bogart and Hepburn's amazing performances and moving, authentic chemistry together. Each of their characters were fantastic and were given just enough of the spotlight to each become loved by the audience. These two truly are an unmatched couple that developed so much throughout this movie limited to just their time spent together on the boat. I adore how the script had them learn from each other and eventually meet a common ground on their motivations where they could work together and survive so effectively. This, of course, led to them also falling in love, which was a nice romantic addition to the story as well.
What also surprised me very much about this film was its stupendous production value. For a film released in 1951, I was pleasantly taken aback by how flawless this movie's technical elements come together to make an engaging visual narrative. Jack Cardiff's cinematography and Ralph Kemplen's editing worked together absolutely beautifully. Cardiff utilized such a wide range of shots, including lots of beautiful establishing ones that really helped to set the environment for these two main characters. Perhaps it is because this film was actually shot in Africa, but the heightened focus on making this movie look, as well as sound, good was incredible. Kemplen's editing was phenomenal as well, as the cuts were very quick in the beginning and end during the more exciting sequences but really slowed down and let the story of the relationship between the two breathe in the middle. My only issues with this film were some of Huston's pacing problems and many of the conversational scenes. His direction is a bit wonky at times, as there was not much to build up to until the last 15 minutes of the film. The entire second act was practically devoted to building the relationship between Charlie and Rose, but Huston made it feel as if there was an attack incoming or they were in a rush for some reason. I wish he would have slowed down the tone to ease the audience's nerves, as I feel like they would have much better resonated with the two. Despite some unevenness with the direction, there is no doubt that the message of love in the time of war is still very successfully accomplished. This was such a beautiful theme for this story to revolve around and one that was much better suited for its audience rather than the hostility and gruesomeness of WWI.
The African Queen has been regarded as one of the most influential war films of all time and for that, I find no objection. Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn all do such an excellent job of keeping their audience engaged while providing an original story to set itself apart from other war films of the time. I adore the shifted focus throughout this movie and Huston's flawless direction between adventure and romance, paving the way for one of the most classic and watchable movies of this time period.
My Rating: ★★★★
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