Charlton Heston in “Nairobi Affair“ (1984)

Lee Cahill (Charlton Heston), the fairly lean and stalwart owner of a Kenyan safari camp is a former hunter, separated from his wife for years. His son, Rick (John Savage), has returned from a stint with the Green Berets in Viet Nam to help the Kenyan government track down and stop increasingly audacious and violent poachers who have been killing protected species of wildlife in Central Africa, and bring them in dead or alive. As if that wasn’t hard enough, he has to deal with his estranged father, now a safari guide, and with the woman they both love. When Rick’s mother dies, he and his father, Lee, re-connect at the funeral of Lee’s ex-wife and Rick’s mother. Rick is not surprised when his father shows up late, as usual. Lee is having an affair with his estranged son’s former wife. The two men exchange bitter barbs as anthropologist Anne (Maud Adams), Rick’s former wife and Lee’s current love interest, stands between them looking understandably pained, yet gives no sign of a lingering interest in Rick. A father and son bound by blood and a love of Africa and its wildlife. The 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, Rick, has never forgiven him. Experienced safari guide Lee and his camp manager, Simon (John Rhys-Davies), set off on a photography expedition with a traveling American couple. Rick gets into a small plane to search for poachers killing elephants for their ivory tusks. Anne shows up for a vacation, and the romantic ingredients are stirred. Simon begins acting decidedly strange. It is only a matter of time before the paths of Lee and Rick will pass on the dramatically beautiful plains of Kenya. Rick’s plane gets into mechanical difficulty, and makes a forced landing, on the vast open expanses of Kenya, within feet of where Lee happens to be parked in his safari truck. Rick 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 1984 action-adventure family drama romance film, directed by Marvin J. Chomsky, produced by Robert Halmi, written by David Epstein, cinematography by Ronnie Taylor, starring Charlton Heston (Moses in the “Ten Commandments“), John Savage, Maud Adams, John Rhys-Davies, Connie Booth, Shane Rimmer, Thomas Baptiste, Bill Wright, and Elizabeth Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies works hard at fashioning his ambiguous character. Charlton Heston is basically playing ... Heston. Maud Adams, a Swedish actress and model fluent in five languages, known for her roles in “The Man with the Golden Gun“ (1974) and then as the title character in “Octopussy“ (1983), made her screen debut in “The Boys in the Band“ (1970). “We can’t seem to get the Ivory without killing the elephants.“ That’s what Charlton Heston tells a wealthy woman on safari wanting a “souvenir“, with the selfish woman determined to get some anyway. She’s a cold-hearted reminder of the privileged rich who have no heart when it comes to trinket loving tourists unconcerned about the environment, or laws, and the reason why poachers become so voracious in their desperation to fulfill that desire and make money at the expense of wildlife out in their territory just living their lives. The film deals with the fight against the poachers with father and son team Charlton Heston and John Savage joining forces in spite of personal issues (rivalry over pretty Maud Adams) to prevent this illegal trade. 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. However, the narrative doesn’t so much flow as lurch every 10 or 15 minutes under the ponderous wispiness of David Epstein’s script. 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 variation of filmdom’s old great-white-hunter is a solid film and a primer for conservationists. Enjoyable for the kind of film it is, rather old fashioned in nature. The film’s biggest asset is the gorgeous scenery. The cinematography of the Kenyan countryside should be seen on the big screen. Shot entirely on location in Kenya, the director of has captured those aspects of the landscape and the wildlife that never fail to leave mere urbanites impressed. Kenya’s bush country and its wildlife are remarkable and cinematographer Ronnie Taylor creates striking imagery. The shots of the various wildlife in their own atmosphere is stunning. Two hours of ’’Nairobi Affair’’ can leave you feeling as if you’ve just spent two weeks on a safari with Charlton Heston.