Just a head's up that this will be on Turner Classic Movies at 3:00 am Central time tonight/tomorrow morning. I have set the DVR.

Charles,
thanks! Mine is set!

The book was one of the best ever-- is the movie any good?

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:
The book was one of the best ever-- is the movie any good?

I have not read the book -- it is on the list -- but I would recommend you watch the movie if you can.

It is a wonderful movie and the book is much better.

Just started. Turner Classic Movies

is it possible to get the film on DVD ? And also Robert Ruarks safarifilm aswell?

Not on DVD yet, but you can go to the TUrner Classic Movies website and vote to get it on DVD.

There are a few VHS copies floating around on Amazon.

The book is fantastic and a hell of an accomplishment for a guy who made his fame as a wise guy sydicated newspaper collumnist and short story author. If you have read the book the movie is a disappointment. Ruark was one of the few men to report on Kenya as it really was at that time and to predict the long term outcome of the Mau Mau uprising.

The movie is a B grade film and great deal of it was shot on back lot. There is a small bit of hunting depicted in the film and some typical Kenya countryside scenery shown. Knowing the truth about Rock Hudson really ruins the movie for me. I never did think much of him as an actor and can't get over a raging fag cast in the role of Peter McKenzie in this movie and a swaggering Texas cattle/oil man in Giant. Sidney Poitier steals most of the scenes he and Hudson are in together. John Wayne must have puked when he saw the movie.

To be fair it would be difficult for any movie to do justice to this novel by Ruark.

Perry

Great book. Never saw the movie.

Perry, maybe Rock Hudson got the part because of the way he handled Peter...

quote:

maybe Rock Hudson got the part because of the way he handled Peter...

Grafton, Thanks! you've no idea how much I needed a laugh today.

the credit goes to Jim above. Thanks Jim!

Any chance someone taped this one? Believe it or not I'm doing my masters thesis on the strategic implications of the Mau-Mau insurgency while I'm at the Army War College this year. Sure could use the diversion...

Badger: http://www.amazon.com/Something-Value-Great-Video-Colle...5530?ie=UTF8&s=video

Not too much dough either. Your topic sounds fascinating. You know the Brits were the only Western Power to sucessfully defeat insurgencies like that. THe Mau Mau and the Communist insurgency in Burma...I think anyway. jorge

Thanks Jorge.

Good news is...all signs point toward a COCOM for Africa. Finally, a staff job I might enjoy.

Jorge, thats for that little foot note of history. A lot of people spout off that insurgencies can't be beat. All you need is three things, the will to win, SAS, and Gurkas. As for the Movie in quesion, well I had seen it a number of times. Its pretty good. It was long before Rock Hudson more public problem. As for his ability as an actor, well he was a passable one. And I am going to leave it at that.

Badger Matt: Read the book. If you have not already done so you must do so.

Yep, I read the book...ad just sold it to an AR member. It was gripping...

Good boy. Read Uhuhru as well, if you have not. It is also very informative. I believe that Ruark was able to accurately predict the future of all of Africa with these two books, as based upon more fact than fiction.

Jim,

That not only got a smile, but an actual laugh out of me this morning. With 4 trials the next 4 weeks I didn't think that was possible.

Perry

quote:

ou know the Brits were the only Western Power to sucessfully defeat insurgencies like that. THe Mau Mau and the Communist insurgency in Burma...I think anyway. jorge

Yes, but they also caused their own slow growing insurgencies elsewhere...namely the middle east early in the century.

Why hate Rock Hudson for being gay? Why not also hate Ruark for his treatment of his wife for nearly their whole marriage? When you look at it, their actions weren;t really all that different, just the who they were with. _Baxter

Jorge:

Maybe you mean Malaya rather than Burma? How the Brits handled "insurgency" in Malaya I well remember was something of a lesson to us all. I still say that the finest example of handling a truly "native " insurgency(the insurgents in Malaya were mostly Chinese -who were hated by the native Malays) was by President Ramon Magsaysay of the then new Republic of the Philippines in dealing with the "Huks" (Hukbalahap) - an apparent Communist uprising. President Magsaysay instituted a real land reform program ( which did NOT consist of taking land away from its rightful owners and giving it to bums or political cronies - like in Zimbabwe) He ended the insurgency, then and there. I have always wondered why what he did has not been studied more closely by Western politicians. They might even learn something that could spare my country spending blood. Just my thoughts.

Gerry: You are 100% correct sir. It was Malaya and not Burma. Baxter, at the risk of getting chastised again by talking politics here, we (the US) in our often misguided benevolence, pressured the european powers to eschew colonialism, which incidentally, the US was the ONLY colony the Brits lost, but realistically back then the New World was a backwater compared to what was going on in Europe. We and with the Soviets as strange bedfellows, pressured the europeans into premature divestiture of thier colonial holdings (for the most part). The 1956 Suez Canal fiasco comes immeditely to mind.

Call me politically incorrect, but most of the places mentioned--at least from the Western point of view- would have benefitted from a slower progression towards independence than in the short 20 odds years following WWII. I miss Winston Churchill jorge

quote:

Yep, I read the book...ad just sold it to an AR member. It was gripping...

You already know this Matt, but if you get the COCOM, get cracking on learning to parlez francais.

How is the library at Carlisle Barracks? Are retired USAF officers allowed to do research there?

lawndart

Blood has to be spilled every generation; no getting around that. Best we can hope for is to get good value for each drop.

Encourage an uprising here, put another one down there; its all the same. Someone is going to get the copper, diamonds, oil and titanium; might as well be us. Oh yeah, and the elephants also .

LD

Badger Matt

Also take a look at teddy Roosevelt's African Game Trails. After reading that you wonder what in the heck happend in 50 years to change so much. ANd Roosevelt's comments regarding Africa are quire interesting, and certainly not pc.

lawndart - no idea whether they'd let a retired AF officer do research there or not. The library is a pretty decent research library. The big benefit, much as it was at the Army's Command and General Staff College is the superior professionalism of the staff. They will help with research and have, in the past, even e-mailed articles to my home on request.

Badger Matt,

Thanks for the reply.

The library at Maxwell, AFB also had a good crew.

Good luck with the COCOM assignment.

LD

lawndart? F-16 driver? That what we've always called the F-16