Nairobi Affair

Shot entirely in Kenya, this action-adventure film rises above its flaws, chiefly of the post-production sort, telling to good effect a tale of a father and son, in love with the same woman, and their enterprises in Central Africa issuing from the son's Kenyan government contract to curtail poachers who have been killing protected species of wildlife. Lee Cahill ( Charlton Heston) and his son Rick (John Savage) have been estranged but recommence contact at the funeral of Lee's ex-wife and Rick's mother which Lee attends with his ladylove, Anne (Maud Adams), who also happens to be Rick's former lover, yet gives no sign of a lingering interest in him. Schism between the two men occurred when Lee, formerly a prominent hunter of game latterly adapted to guiding photographic safaris, left Rick's mother, for which the younger Cahill, a former Green Beret in Viet Nam, has never forgiven him. Method-acting Savage's somewhat fragile appearance operates against the credibility of his performance, specially after he is given full authority to bring about permanent extinguishment of poaching activity, but instead prefers to arrest the malefactors, even after they have attempted to kill him. A worthy attempt is made to balance the scenario's two major issues: control of the poaching problem and the possibility of a reconciliation between the two men, one of whom will face humiliation upon Anne's choice of a mate. Sturdy Heston is a bit past the calendar point where he should be declaiming platitudes of love to Adams as he must do here, and he is too slow and stiff-jointed to be fully plausible in action scenes; Adams is adequate in an underwritten role; Connie Booth is wasted in her brief part as a libidinous safari photographer's wife; however, the topflight Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies works hard at fashioning his ambiguous character. Kenya's bush country and its wildlife are remarkable and cinematographer Ronnie Taylor creates striking imagery, but editor Eric Albertson has that difficulty of avoiding choppiness, particularly during the first half, when a work is heavily cut. Despite its shortcomings, the production's climactic scenes, although steeped in melodrama, combine satisfactorily as a result of capable direction and a proper emphasis upon the need to resolve the adversarial status of the two principals.

This starts off with "Lee" trying to get the funeral of his wife - and it involves the star - Charlton Heston, no less - running! He's clearly not at his "Ben Hur" best and those few opening scenes rather set the tone for this rather weak and feeble take on the "Quatermain" jungle adventure. His son "Rick" (John Savage) is the product of their broken marriage and has a limited degree of respect for his dad. That isn't much helped by their shared affection for "Anne" (Maud Adams). The former man is a veteran tour guide working on safaris, the latter man an erstwhile British soldier who is employed by the Kenyan government to thwart the antics of poachers who are decimating at will. There's some lively verbiage from the always reliable John Rhys-Davies, but the rest of this is astonishingly formulaic with Adams showing none of her "Octopussy" (1983) charisma. There's loads of on-location wild animal photography that shows off the beauty and perils of the environment but the clunky story and the wooden acting leave a great deal to be desired as the action all-too-frequently finds itself subsumed in a rather dull, and unlikely, love-triangle. The star is beginning to lose his lustre here, and perhaps the more genteel "Colby's" that was beckoning was a more suitable vehicle now. It's watchable, but nobody's finest work - unless you were an hungry lion.

Nairobi Affair casts Charlton Heston and John Savage as a father and so who are bound by blood and a love of Africa and its wildlife. Otherwise these two are as estranged as you can get and have been since Heston's marriage to Savage's mother broke up,

They've got even more reason to hate each other as they are both courting the same woman Maud Adams.

But when poachers are threatening Africa's wildlife the Kenyan government hires Savage who was a former Green Beret to track them down and bring them in dead or alive. So Savage seeks the help of his father who makes a living as a guide for camera safaris.

A generation ago Nairobi Affair would have gotten big screen release. The film's biggest asset the gorgeous cinematography of the Kenyan countryside should be seen on the big screen.

Watching Nairobi Affair I thought this would have been a great project for William Holden who was known for his love of Africa and its wildlife/ It may have been originally planned with Holden in mind. But he was 3 years gone when Nairobi Affair was shown on television.

Nairobi Affair is a fine film and a primer for conservationists.

Unfortunately during the eighties the iconic-veteran Charlton Heston has been scarcely invited by film industry for many reasons including his advanced age and also the higher cost, whatever after the successful mini-series CHIEFS he goes along in many projects, although Nairobi Affair as TV-movie has proved itself a wrong move by Heston mainly by the lame screenplay even an auspicious premise on Africa dealing with poachers of ivory and dealing with his bittered son.

The daft writer imposes an implausible double affairs of Maud Adams by father and son altogether, it somehow demote the offer to a lower point, meanwhile the clash between them upgrade the narrative, Heston playing Lee a slopy father with his family splitting up his worn out marriage and left behind his bothered son Rick played by John Savage, turns out that Rick previously had an affair with Anne, so when Lee finally meets Rick on the ex-wife's funeral the things get worse, due Lee has been proposing a long time an engagement with free Anne.

Rick is assigned by Kenya government about poachers acting at savanna territory and he goes there to chase them, in the same area where his father works as tourist guide, thus the upcoming events will get hotter than never, after a little relief both joint forces to find out the mastermind of forbidden hunting of Elephants and Rhinos on fabulous landscape of Kenya.

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First watch: 1987 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 6.25.

The chief value of this film is the contact you get with the wilderness of Africa, with its immeasurable wildlife and its glory, with all the wild animals, lions, giraffes, gnu antelopes, elephants and so on, the photography is outstanding in capturing all this, and the plot and its intrigues comes second to the nature. It's all about the problem with poachers, the constant nightmare of Africa, threatening wildlife, nature, increasing the extinction of animals and making man the worst beast of all - the baseness of killing the finest animals on earth for their ivory hits the bottom of the rottenness of man. Charlton Heston is as reliable as ever and makes a fine character, John Savage is more doubtful but gets some credits in the end, Maud Adams is their woman, while John Rhys-Davis, always a great actor, plays the most dubious part but does it well. It's not a great film, but its message gets through, and it is worth watching for the beauty and splendour of the wilderness of Africa.