Paul Huggins
4-25-03
The film Stanley and Livingstone, directed by Henry King and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, operates on three different levels. The first level is the showcase of footage shot in Africa. The second level pertains to the fact that the film is a biopic on the lives of Henry M. Stanley (Spencer Tracy) and Dr. David Livingstone (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). The third level deals with what motivates the actions that Stanley takes throughout the course of the film.
When watching Stanley and Livingstone, one is struck by the striking images of African landscape and African wildlife. Indeed, extensive footage was actually shot in Africa, something that had not been done before in the scope of this film. The film, at times, feels almost like a travelogue for the “Dark Continent” (as it is constantly called in this film). However, the African footage really drives home the power and scope of the continent. The most impressive shot in the film occurs when Stanley’s expedition is chased by a massive number of African warriors. Entire hills are filled with writhing and surging masses of black-skinned warriors (who stand out prominently from the light colored hillsides). Images such as these showcase the hardships and dangers that Stanley’s expedition must face.
The second level is the biopic level. This film is great example of the biopic conventions. The hero, Stanley, is charged with a mission to accomplish, in this case to find the whereabouts of a doctor and missionary by the name of Livingstone, and this mission fills the requirements of the Problem-That-Must-Be-Overcome Syndrome that is a Hollywood staple. Along the way, Stanley falls in love with Eve Kingsley (Nancy Kelly), providing the romantic angle to the film. Then the film moves on to the great hardships of Africa, including those pesky warriors. Of course, these hardships are great entertainment, but the audience knows that Stanley will accomplish his mission of finding Livingstone (because if Stanley failed, he could not have uttered the famous line, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.”) The audience’s knowledge of the hero’s ultimate fate is a problem that biopics have struggled with since the genre’s birth. And, finally, the film uses the biopic staple: a tense trial scene. Actually, the trial is really a meeting of English geographers who want to determine if Stanley really found Livingstone, but the hostility towards Stanley, an American who claims to have done what the English explorers could not do, make the meeting into a trial atmosphere.
The motivations that drive Stanley make up the third level of this film. Stanley first sets out to find Livingstone because Stanley is a reporter, and his editor, James Gordon Bennett Jr. (Henry Hull), has convinced Stanley that finding Livingstone would be the greatest journalism story ever. And Stanley is a great reporter, so he packs up with his Native American tracker friend, Jeff Slocum (Walter Brennan) and heads to Africa. Nothing, not even the warnings of Eve Kingsley will prevent him from finding Livingstone. However, after a year of wandering through the African wilderness, Stanley changes. He is still determined to find Livingstone, but he keeps going because he has fallen in love with Kingsley. He does not want to be disgraced in her eyes, so he keeps pushing on despite the hopelessness of the case. After Stanley finds Livingstone, he changes again. Stanley has completed his mission of finding the good doctor, but he has found a new mission in helping Livingstone chart the unknown African land and to spread civilization, kindness, and knowledge to the African people. He wants to help Livingstone not because it would be a great story or because Eve would approve. Stanley becomes motivated to help the doctor because it is simply the right thing to do. This all comes to a head after Stanley leaves Livingstone and goes to England to deliver letters from the doctor to the English geographers (it is at this point Stanley discovers that Eve has married another, which allows Stanley to just focus on helping Livingstone). The geographer’s meeting/trial is next, where Stanley gives a dramatic speech about how not believing his claim is the same as ignoring Livingstone’s great work. Of course, English cynicism cannot be overcome that easily, and the geographers vote that they do not believe that Stanley found Livingstone. However, just in the nick of time, a letter arrives announcing Livingstone’s death and burial in Africa. The geographer’s vote to believe in Stanley, and Stanley then vows to take over Livingstone’s work. He leaves for Africa, despite his editor’s pleas, and the last shots of the film are of the various places that Stanley discovered, such as Stanley Falls.