Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Roots of Heaven Blu-ray Movie Review

The African King.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 20, 2012

When is a star not really a star? Well, there can be several overriding circumstances: he or she might be a bit past their prime, no longer considered truly A-list, or they might be shoved into a cameo despite receiving “star” billing for whatever putative marquee value they are deemed to have. Both of those situations probably apply to Errol Flynn in his ostensible starring role in John Huston’s rather odd 1958 film The Roots of Heaven. William Holden was evidently signed to star in the film, but found himself entangled in a studio contract which forbade his participation, and Huston defaulted to Trevor Howard to take over the role originally assigned to Holden. Howard, while well known, obviously didn’t have the box office appeal of Holden (who was then one of the most bankable stars in the business), and so Flynn, whose role is little more than a cameo, was elevated to the front rank in the billing. Flynn was reaching the end of his storied career, and the effect of his (as he himself described them) “wicked, wicked ways” showed rather dramatically in his face and body. Rather humorously, Flynn’s penchant for heavy drinking, something he shared with director Huston, actually may have helped him survive the rigorous location shoot (mostly in Chad), for reports are rampant that a lot of the cast was horribly sickened by bouts with dysentery and even malaria. Alchol does have a disinfectant quality, after all. The Roots of Heaven might seem to be a really bizarre choice for a director like Huston, one whose proclivities included big game hunting (something that has long been the stuff of legend with regard to Huston’s on location films like The African Queen, and which later was dramatized in the Clint Eastwood film White Hunter Black Heart.) The problem (if indeed there actually is one) might be one more of perception than reality, for The Roots of Heaven is a rather prescient film which seeks to dramatize the plight of the African elephant, which was then being hunted into extinction. Is it strange for a big game hunter to espouse an environmental cause? Probably not, if you pause to think about it. Yes, hunters go out and kill animals, but they are often obviously nature lovers and want various species to continue to thrive if for no other reason than that they want something to hunt. Odd, yes, but in a weird way, understandable.

The environmental movement wouldn’t seem to be a pressing issue to base a late fifties film on. Romain Gary’s novel had come out a couple of years prior to the film, and Gary himself co-scripted the screenplay, and so Gary’s recognition of a problem that wouldn’t really reach the mainstream until at least 1962 with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring must be afforded all due respect. Gary’s focal point is slightly different than environmentalism generally, or at the very least is chooses one salient symbol—namely, the elephant—to stand for a whole laundry list of concerns, but the fact remains that The Roots of Heaven approaches a subject that was most likely not really one many people’s radar when the film was released, which may have at least partially played into the less than stellar response the film received from both critics and audiences alike.

While the subject matter may have been somewhat obtuse to audiences back in the fifties, the fact is the failure of the film can’t be ascribed solely to that fact. Despite Huston’s always sure handed direction, and a largely game (no pun intended) cast, The Roots of Heaven has a weirdly scattered storytelling structure which starts off fairly well but which soon dissipates into near incomprehensibility as the film wends toward a somewhat perplexing conclusion. Trevor Howard portrays Morel, an animal activist in French Equatorial Africa who wants to save the elephant from what he perceives as impending extinction. Morel wants to go the nonviolent route at first, attempting to get a petition signed and tacitly approved by the colonial government. Instead, he’s more or less laughed at, pushing Morel into a corner from he decides to come out swinging. He’s aided in his new “in your face” attitude (replete with shotguns) by hyperbolic, somewhat smarmy television broadcaster Cy Sedgewick (Orson Welles).

Unlike Huston’s other Africa set film, The African Queen, The Roots of Heaven is much more of an ensemble piece, with a number of supporting players rounding out various people that interact with Howard’s Morel character. These include hotel “hostess” Minna (Juliette Greco, evidently the latest in a long line of Daryl F. Zanuck discoveries cum girlfriends) and Major Forsythe (Errol Flynn), a hard drinking disgraced British soldier who’s looking for redemption. There’s also Saint Denis (Paul Lukas), originally a government lackey sent to track Morel and his guerrilla band, but who later has second thoughts, as well as Professor Peer Qvist (Frederich Lebedur), an ardent and philosophical man who has one of the film’s best scenes, where he literally spanks the hunting wife of the film’s main villain, Orsini (Herbert Lom). The fact that there are so many characters (the above list doesn’t even include Eddie Albert’s photojournalist or Edric Connors’ black nationalist activist) hints at something which also plagues this film: namely, how incredibly diffused it is. Along with the film’s rather preculiar talkiness, there are so many characters Huston attempts to wrangle that what should be the main story—namely Morel and his quest—gets repeatedly shunted aside in favor of little character beats.

What remains is an often very pretty travelogue, though one without the rousing set pieces that made The African Queen such a sensation. The Roots of Heaven, as probably befits its subject, is a much more ruminative, introspective piece, one which ends up bringing most of the major characters hurtling toward a melodramatic climax, and it’s not especially well suited to Huston’s usually fairly cynical take on the fate of Mankind. Morel may indeed be a disillusioned, haggard idealist by the film’s end, but instead of Huston’s jaundiced perspective, something which more often than not plays out with a lot of snap, crackle and pop, the audience is instead left feeling oddly defeated and deflated. The Roots of Heaven was no doubt somewhat ahead of its time, and that slightly crushed feeling the blankets the film may in fact have more resonance in today’s world than it did at the tail end of the Eisenhower era. The film’s message is a noble one, though some may wonder if perhaps the wrong messenger was chosen to deliver it.

The Roots of Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Roots of Heaven is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This gorgeous CinemaScope feature sports the luminous cinematography of the legendary Oswald Morris, and Huston utilizes Morris' mastery to brilliantly fill the huge frame. For the most part this is a problem free transfer, with bright, bold and often beautiful colors and some amazing fine detail (some of the close-ups of the elephants may provide more information about the pachyderms than some might want to see). While there are some minor registration issues that pop up from time to time, about the only major issue some may have with this transfer, something which is undoubtedly part of the source elements, is some really odd color shifting in several of the optical dissolves. Some may be troubled by some very minor edge enhancement which crops up in some of the brightly lit savannah segments where the light source is behind the players. Other than that, this is yet another great looking title from Twilight Time, a label which is at the mercy of the studios from which they license their titles, but which has continually shown discriminating taste in bringing a connoisseur's menu of unusual choices to Blu-ray.

The Roots of Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Roots of Heaven's stereo soundtrack is delivered via a very nice sounding lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. The film really isn't as much of an action-adventure outing as some might expect going in, and so the lack of a surround mix isn't missed in any large degree. Fidelity here is top notch, if obviously fairly narrow, and Malcolm Arnold's boisterous score sounds fantastic (it's also available via an isolated score track). While there's no real LFE per se, there is some awesome lower end in a couple of key sequences, and the DTS track supports the film's rather impressive dynamic range.

The Roots of Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Isolated Score. As is standard on Twilight Time releases, the score (with minimal effects) is presented via an isolated track on a very nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. Malcolm Arnold may not be that well known to younger audiences, but he was one of the most iconic British composers of his era, one known as much for his classical pieces as for his film scores. The Roots of Heaven finds Arnold working a symphonic canvas with martial overtones that might remind some of a score from a film William Holden did star in, The Bridge Over the River Kwai.

The Roots of Heaven Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Roots of Heaven is an interesting misfire from director John Huston. Unusually philosophical and undeniably prescient in its exploration of environmental concerns which wouldn't really erupt into the mainstream for at least a few more years, the film is weighed down by too many characters and its own talkiness. The film is still gorgeous to behold, and the CinemaScope image here is presented with often breathtaking results on this Blu-ray. While the film may have issues, the Blu-ray has very few of any major import. The Roots of Heaven still offers some wonderful performances (especially from Orson Welles, who is, in a word, a hoot), and stunning cinematography. Recommended.