Visit To A Chief's Son
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''Visit to a Chief's Son'' is a 1974 American
biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...
adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...
directed by Lamont Johnson and starring
Richard Mulligan Richard Mulligan (November 13, 1932 – September 26, 2000) was an American character actor. He was known for his roles in the sitcoms ''Soap'' (1977–1981) and '' Empty Nest'' (1988–1995). Mulligan was the winner of two Emmy Aw ...
and
Johnny Sekka Johnny Sekka (born Lamine Secka, 21 July 1934 – 14 September 2006) was a Senegalese actor. Early life and move to Europe He was born Lamine Secka in Dakar, Senegal to a Wolof family, the youngest of five siblings; his Gambian father died ...
.


Plot

An American arthropologist and his son benefit from their experiences with an East African tribe.


Cast

*
Richard Mulligan Richard Mulligan (November 13, 1932 – September 26, 2000) was an American character actor. He was known for his roles in the sitcoms ''Soap'' (1977–1981) and '' Empty Nest'' (1988–1995). Mulligan was the winner of two Emmy Aw ...
as Robert *
Johnny Sekka Johnny Sekka (born Lamine Secka, 21 July 1934 – 14 September 2006) was a Senegalese actor. Early life and move to Europe He was born Lamine Secka in Dakar, Senegal to a Wolof family, the youngest of five siblings; his Gambian father died ...
as Nermolok * John Philip Hogdon as Kevin * Jesse Kinaru as Codonyo * Jock Anderson as Jock * Chief Lomoiro as Chief


Background

The film is based on a
memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...
titled ''Visit to a Chief's Son: An American Boy's Adventure with an African Tribe'' which was written by
Robert Halmi Robert Halmi (Sr.) (; January 22, 1924 – July 30, 2014) was a Hungarian-born producer of movies and mini-series for television. Early life Robert Halmi was born in Budapest on January 22, 1924. His father, Béla Halmi, was a photographer and b ...
and Ann Kennedy and published in 1963. The book details the experiences shared by Halmi and his 9-year-old
stepson A stepchild is the offspring of one's spouse, but not one's own offspring, either biologically or through adoption. Stepchildren can come into a family in a variety of ways. A stepchild may be the child of one's spouse from a previous relationshi ...
Kevin Gorman during a trip to
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
in 1962. During their stay with a Maasai tribe, Kevin befriended Dionni (named Codonyo in the film), the chief's son. Kevin taught Dionni how to play
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
and in turn, Dionni taught him how to
hunt Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
buffaloes and
zebras Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped Animal coat, coats. There are three Extant taxon, living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and t ...
and the tribe's elders taught him how to be a
spear-thrower A spear-thrower, spear-throwing lever, or ''atlatl'' (pronounced or ; Classical Nahuatl, Nahuatl ''ahtlatl'' ) is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in Dart (missile), dart or javelin-throwing, and includes a Plain bearing, b ...
. He also learnt 11 words in Swahili and kept a
diary A diary is a written or audiovisual memorable record, with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digita ...
of his experiences. Halmi took photographs of Kevin's many adventures alongside his new friend and included them in an article titled ''American Boy's Storybook of Adventures in Deepest Africa: 'I Go Visit a Chief's Son which was published in the April 13, 1962 issue of ''
Life Magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...
''.


Rating controversy

The film features a brief scene in which both Kevin (John Philip Hogdon) and Codonyo (Jesse Kinaru) are seen
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
and playing
nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and no ...
together in a lake in which there are also several
hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...
nearby. As Kevin goes into the water having taken off all his clothes, Codonyo remarks he notices his friend is already circumcised. Because of this scene the film was originally given an R-rating. In a 1974 interview, Johnson stated: "Four frames of film in which a barely perceptible view of a 12-year-old boy's
penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...
appeared in an underwater sequence gave my movie ''Visit to a Chief's Son'' an R-rating until the objectionable subliminal flash was blown up to eliminate it. That my film, from its conception to its final cut an unabashed family, kids-and-animals-in-Africa picture, should have the same rating as ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...
'' is an obscenity symptomatic of our national disease of censorship".


Music

The film's original score composed by
Francis Lai Francis Albert Lai (; 26 April 19327 November 2018) was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film '' Love Story''. The ...
was released by Music Box Records.Visit to a Chief's Son
Music Box Records. Retrieved November 24, 2020.


References


External links

* {{Lamont Johnson 1974 films 1970s adventure films Films directed by Lamont Johnson Films set in Kenya United Artists films Films scored by Francis Lai American adventure drama films American biographical drama films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language biographical drama films English-language adventure films