White Hunter Black Heart Eastwood, is based on real-life director John Huston. Jeff Fahey plays Pete Verrill, a character based on Viertel. George Dzundza's character is based on "African Queen" producer Sam Spiegel. Marisa Berenson's character Kay Gibson and Richard Vanstone's character Phil Duncan, are based on Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, respectively. This was the last film that James Bridges worked on writing down a screenplay before dying in 1993. In the early 1950s, world-renowned film-maker John Wilson travels to Africa for his next film bringing with him a young writer chum named Pete Verrill. Part of his travel plans include hunting elephants
Clint Eastwood in the 1980s best westerns in a long, long time". Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" said, "This year (1985) will go down in film history as the moment Clint Eastwood finally earned respect as an artist". In 1986, Eastwood starred in the military drama "Heartbreak Ridge", about the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, West Indies, with a portion of the movie filmed on the island itself. It co-starred Marsha Mason. However, the title comes from the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge in the Korean War, based around Eastwood's character of Tom Highway, an ageing United States Marine Gunnery Sergeant and Korean War veteran,