I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Copyright 1958 by Darryl F. Zanuck Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 15 October 1958. U.S. release: October 1958. U.K. release: 22 February 1959. Australian release: 12 March 1959. Sydney opening at the Regent. 11,350 feet. 125 minutes.SYNOPSIS: In Fort Lamy, French Equatorial Africa, an idealist named Morel (Trevor Howard), launches a one-man crusade to preserve the African elephant from extinction. Generally disappointed with man's civilization, he thinks of the elephants as the last-remaining "roots of heaven". He attempts to effect legislation to stop professional and game ivory hunters from destroying the elephant and at first finds support only from Minna (Juliette Greco), hostess of the town's only night club, who falls in love with him, and from an ex-British major, now a derelict, named Forsythe (Errol Flynn).NOTES: Location scenes filmed in French Equatorial Africa. Interiors at Studios de Boulogne, Paris. Number 7 on the Saturday Review's Ten Best list for 1958.For everything that lies between man and God is in the roots of heaven (Arabian proverb).COMMENT: Strange and exotic places were a natural magnet for CinemaScope. This time the anamorphic lens travels deep into the Cameroons. But unfortunately — as is too often the case — for a few moments' worth of fascinating backgrounds, we are obliged to put up with a dreary and unbelievable story.True, the plot starts promisingly enough, but fails to sustain its momentum — partly because the writing just peters out, partly because the players make such heavy weather of their characters, partly because the direction (from a master like Huston, yet) is so surprisingly indifferent.OTHER VIEWS: A disappointment. — Variety. An interesting but curiously unconvincing picture. — Time.

Good film that had several inconvenient and misfortunes , as the cast and crew suffered temperatures would routinely reach 134 degrees in the day and 95 degrees at night , as the 130 people had 920 sick calls during the shooting . This is an exciting story about Morel's adventures who accompanied by a motley group carry out a real denounce against the massacre of the elephants . Morel lives in Africa and can not stand quiet on this slaughter and he , then , undertakes a dangerous travel on protection of elephants . Morel (Trevor Howard , though James Mason was considered for the role , also William Holden was originally cast with top billing ; however, he later pulled out and was replaced) starts to fight to prohibit this hunt . As he begins , nobody supports him , but thanks to an American Radio newsreader called Sedgwick (Orson Welles , his foe was normally $15,000 but he did it gratis in order to repay Darryl F. Zanuck for helping Welles find the funds to complete Otelo) he becomes a famous person . Some people come to help him , such as : the drunk Forsythe (Errol Flynn , who was then given top billing, even though Howard had the lead role, this was Errol Flynn's last major film before his death the following year others try to use him) , the magazine photographer Abe Fields (Eddie Albert , who developed an almost fatal case of sunstroke) and his lover Minna (Juliette Gréco) , among others . This thought-provoking as well as interesting adventure movie contains a real condemnation of violence and intolerance in which an agreeable character attempts to awake the world's consciousness , being interspersed with a lot of political issues in those times of the French/British colonialism in Africa . It's a story of losers , brave and valiant roles , mixed with revolutionary interests . Nice acting by Trevor Howard as a man committed to nature and especially against indiscriminate ivory trade , determined at whatever cost to avoid the killing of elephants taking place in a French colony . In addition , the strange beauty Juliette Greco , French singer and actress , ¨Protegee¨ of Darryl F. Zanuck, who put her in a number of films in the late 50s-early 60s . Remaining cast is generally quite good , giving fantastic jobs , plenty of great actors who suffered from the heat , malaria and other tropical diseases , as temperatures during filming reached over 130 degrees in the daytime and only got down to 95 at night . As terrible heat and sickness took their toll on the cast and crew . There stand out the followings : Eddie Albert , Paul Lukas , Herbert Lom , Grégoire Aslan , Jacques Marin , and , of course , Orson Welles included . However , Errol Flynn's alcoholism had become a round-the-clock problem, and he was frequently at odds with John Huston . In his autobiography titled ¨My Wicked, Wicked Ways", Errol Flynn wrote that he enjoyed making this film more than any other. Colorful photography in CinemaScope by Oswald Morris is spectacular and insurmountable , it was mostly made on location in Africa over five months , in the Belgian Congo and Tchad in the Northern Cameroons, where the elephants were located . As the cast and crew were in French Equatorial Africa for 6 months making the movie , and on some days it would be a four hour drive to the location and back , as they vowed never to return . It displays an emotive and sensitive musical score by the classic British composer Malcolm Arnold . The motion picture was well directed by John Huston , though he cited this film as an example of how some of the worst shoots can result in the worst films . Its tense filmmaking makes this crackerjack entertainment . The picture was made in a good time in the late 50s , 60s and 70s when Huston reappeared as a director of quality with The misfits (1961) , Freud (1962) , The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) , Fat City, (1972) , The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987) . Rating : 6.5/10 , this is an acceptable John Huston film , despite failing at box office , a model of his kind , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to adventure films

It's about an ex-soldier, Morel (played by Trevor Howard), who has come to Africa to protect elephants against extinction. He sees them as noble animals and as 'roots of heaven', that is creatures made by God. First, no one is on his side, but later he manages to find some supporters. The authorities are after them, and they also have to defend themselves against some hunters who want to kill a large herd of elephants.It was interesting to see how and for what motives some of the characters change their attitudes towards Morel. Some of his pursuers stop pursuing him or even start to help him, and some of his followers leave him and take part in hunting the large elephant herd. I found the character Waitari, an African freedom fighter, to be especially interesting. He has many difficulties. The French colonial authorities are after him, he wants to protect the elephants because they are a symbol of African freedom, he needs money for weapons, and he has to try to control his followers, who want to start an armed fight against the French although it is (probably) too early for that.At first I didn't like Morel very much. I thought that the priest was right who scolds him for loving animals more than human beings, who need help more than animals. (And as far as I know elephants can be very dangerous. I've seen a documentary about that. When you are in a forest that they see as their territory (that you have trespassed on), they first approach you, and you can't hear them because their feet are so soft. Then they grab you with their trunks and hurl you through the air. A few people die that way every year.) But later in the movie one learns how Morel came to love elephants so much: he was a soldier in WW II, and during the years he had to spend in a prison camp, he read books about elephants. They became a symbol of freedom for him. So I understood and liked him better, and there's nothing wrong about protecting animals anyway (although I think that fighting hunger in the world is still more important.) Plus Howard acts really well in my opinion.The main reason I watched this movie is that I have been a fan of Errol Flynn ever since I first saw him in 'The Sea Hawk'. In this one, he gets top billing, but he is a supporting actor only. (As I've said before Trevor Howard plays the hero, but the producers probably thought he was not famous enough to get top billing). I think his acting is good. But I think some scenes were very easy to play for him anyway; he plays an alcoholic, and in some scenes he looks as if he was really drunk (when he arrives, with Greco, at the tribal village). (That's what's called 'method acting' ;)I also usually like films starring or directed by Welles or Huston. Welles only has a small part and I think he overacts, but that doesn't matter because he is really funny in my opinion. The direction is mostly good, as far as I can tell, but some of it could have been done better: there are some long shots of elephants that don't seem to fit in very well with the other shots. Or is this perhaps the editor's (not the director's) fault? I don't know. (There are also some blue-screen shots that don't look very good.)All in all, I really liked this movie. I think it has some minor flaws, and I didn't like it as much as, for example, 'The Sea Hawk' and 'The Maltese Falcon'. But, as I've said before, I liked both the story and the actors, so I have given this one eight points. I also liked the music (by Malcolm Arnold).If you like this one you might also try 'White Hunter Black Heart'. It stars Clint Eastwood as John Huston (although he's called 'John Wilson'). I liked it, too, but I liked 'The Roots of Heaven' better. And if you also find the character Waitari interesting, try 'Queimada'. It has a similar character and he's more central to the story. It's not as unknown as 'The Roots of Heaven', but still rather unknown, which is a mystery to me. It stars Brando, has music by Morricone, is directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (of 'La Battaglia di Algeri' fame), and, most importantly, its story is extremely interesting in my opinion.

THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN, John Huston's 'Save the Elephant' African drama, based on Romain Gary's ponderous novel, was a costly, torturous misfire about which even Huston himself had little positive to say ("The pictures that turn out to be the most difficult to make, usually turn out to be the worst - like ROOTS OF HEAVEN.") While the story, of an almost fanatical idealist and his international band of rag-tag followers, fighting against the poachers who were hunting the species to near extinction, was a timely one, the production suffered so many calamities and setbacks that what finally reached the screen bore little resemblance to the initial concept. But what a back story it had!Originally intended to star was William Holden, who was, in real life, an impassioned activist concerning Africa and it's wildlife. With Holden and Huston attached to the project, an all-star supporting cast was easily recruited, including Errol Flynn, Eddie Albert, Orson Welles, Paul Lukas, and Darryl Zanuck's newest 'protégé', Juliette Greco. Then Paramount politely informed Holden that he had unfulfilled obligations to the studio, and they would not release him to make the 20th Century Fox production. With the other talent under contract, and an inflexible location 'start' date, Fox faced the dilemma of no acceptable 'leading man' being available at short notice...and ended up casting British character actor Trevor Howard in Holden's role. Howard, however, had no 'marquee' value, so Errol Flynn, in a decidedly secondary role, found himself the 'star' of the movie!Huston arrived in Africa with Darryl Zanuck (the often jealous producer may have been a bit nervous having Juliette Greco working with world-class lotharios Huston and Flynn), and the 140-degree inferno quickly took a heavy toll on the cast and crew. Eddie Albert collapsed with sunstroke, and everyone except Huston and Flynn, who had each brought prodigious amounts of alcohol to consume, were soon suffering from amoebic dysentery. With the frequent production delays, Huston went big-game hunting, and philosophized to the world press. Flynn and Huston, both larger than life personalities, started arguing on set (considering the quantity of alcohol they consumed, it was not surprising!), and Flynn dared the director to fight him. While it might have been an interesting contest, twenty years before, when Flynn was in shape and a talented amateur boxer, he was long past his prime, and Huston, who had actually been a professional boxer in his youth, flattened the actor with one punch.It was NOT a happy production!The end result of all the suffering was a film that lacked cohesiveness, with unresolved subplots, and poorly defined characters. Huston would move on to a western with Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn, THE UNFORGIVEN; Zanuck dumped Greco and began preproduction on his epic, THE LONGEST DAY (featuring NEW 'protégé', Irina Demick); and Flynn, after a brief recurrence of malaria, would produce and star in the abysmal CUBAN REBEL GIRLS, and would be dead in less than a year.THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN was a disaster, for all involved!