Grandi cacciatori

Until a few months ago, this belated Italian adventure film was (incredibly enough) so rare that not even the IMDb listed it...this despite the fact that the cast includes two powerhouse international stars in Klaus Kinski and Harvey Keitel!!; for the record, director Caminito would soon be directing KInski again in VAMPIRE IN VENICE (1988) – the troubled but not entirely worthless sequel to Herzog's 1979 version of NOSFERATU. The film's first half deals with boozing big game hunter Kinski's deranged quest for an 'immortal' panther that had killed his young bride (Kinksi's real-life spouse Deborah Caprioglio) which leads to his being jailed and the animal dying by other hands in the interim! Having no other compulsion to keep him alive, Kinski quits the hot climate of the Savannah to go after ruthless seal hunters in the Arctic but, perhaps inevitably, Kinski is soon lost in a blizzard and is later discovered floating – dead but with eyes wide open – under the ice by Keitel. Unfortunately, this very short scene is the only one to be 'shared' between the two actors and, admittedly, I was initially disappointed on finding that Keitel would not be portraying Kinski's Arctic nemesis but merely his replacement. Besides, the latter segment is bogged down by too many scenes of Eskimese hospitality but, in the long run, the snowy landscapes, the shots of animal life and the blood-thirsty climactic confrontation save the day. Thankfully, the director does not dwell inordinately on graphic sequences depicting the extermination of the seals and the whole concoction is permeated by a haunting, part choral-part electronic score courtesy of composer Luigi Ceccarelli.