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Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent but underrated film

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

From Frank Machin to Marcus Aurelius,Richard Harris has hidden behind various accents,mannerisms and eccentricities for so many years that it came as a bit of a shock to discover that,when the mood was on him,he could still produce an honest and revealing performance.As George Adamson the pioneer wildlife preservationist he has cut to the bare bones and given us a wilful,stubborn shambling wreck of a man who refuses to accept that he has grown old - a thirty year old in an 80 year old's body. Grumbling,misanthropic,tunnel - visioned,Harris's Adamson is not an easy man to like,but,unlike many of his former characterisations,he is a totally believable one. "To walk with lions" is a "warts and all" portrait of an Africa riven with internal strife and careless of the fate of it's wildlife.Game poachers bribe or intimidate Wardens,rebel "soldiers" rape and murder at will whilst Adamson's Reserve seems an oasis of hope,reason and enlightenment. It could,if you were terribly non PC,be taken as representing the last outpost of the Empire,but of course I'm sure that was not the filmmakers'intention. Ordered by the Kenyan government to quit,Adamson,predictably,digs his heels in,and the scene is set for a confrontation he is not going to win. Stubborness is the feature all the main characters share.Adamson's brother,a man not converted to the cause of the lions ("..the elephant - now "THERE'S an animal!"),his new assistant,Byronic drifter Fitzjohn,mauled by a lion,shot at by poachers,beaten up by soldiers,he still persists in his aim to move Adamson's Reserve to Namibia,and Lucy, Anthropologist and Fitzjohn's partner - in -resolve to continue Adamson's work, they share a steely determination to fulfill their self - allotted tasks. Honor Blackman appears in a small part as Joy Adamson and certainly seizes her moment.Geraldine Chaplin arrives towards the end as Adamson's former mistress .In attempting to rescue her from a rebel ambush he is shot to death. Uncomfortable questions are asked about Africa's future and the future of its wildlife,but with the current genocide in Darfur and strife and unrest in so many other states,it is apparent that the country's leaders may have more on their minds than saving a few animals.From their point of view it may well be a matter of priorities. I was disturbed by this movie,left with an overwhelming feeling of gloom over the fate of millions of my fellow human beings.What they need is someone like George Adamson to speak for them.

The story of George and Joy Adamson and the lioness, Elsa, they raised and gave back to the wild was told in Joy's book and later in the film, 'Born Free', starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers.'To Walk With Lions' takes up the story some years later. George still lives on Kora, surrounded by his ever-increasing brood of lions rescued from circuses and zoos and rehabilitated for survival as nature intended. Joy has left Kora, presumably for a more conventional life elsewhere in Kenya. George's brother Terence dreams of a conservation park where he can nurture and care for his beloved elephants and keep them safe from ivory poachers. And to this strange pair of men comes a new assistant, Tony, who at first cares little for the spirituality of man-animal communication but simply wants to make money.As George Adamson, Richard Harris puts in another towering performance as the stubborn man who sees the lions as blood brothers, kindred spirits who have as much right to exist and be left alone as humans do. Ian Bannen plays Terence very well; a blustering, sarcastic old man in the early part of the film and a broken spirit following the slaughter of his beloved elephants by Africans greedy to sell their tusks. Honor Blackman makes a fleeting appearance as Joy Adamson (who was murdered by her servant in Kenya). John Michie is Tony, and Kerry Fox is Lucy, a doctoral student who befriends the tribesmen but grows to understand the life of the lions.'To Walk With Lions' is a deep film with much to say on the protection of wild animals, the changing face of Africa, and the greed and intolerance of those who only seek to do good. George Adamson's murder at 83 because he refused to leave Kora to the poachers has had a lasting effect - in real life, Tony and Lucy continue to build a sanctuary for the animals in Africa, and were eventually invited back to Kora to continue the work the Adamsons started in the 1950s.This film is about the forces of nature and the passage of time. It is a quiet, understated, and effective piece of work.

To Walk With Lions is a true story, based on the final few years in the life of the lion-lover George Adamson. Film buffs will remember that the film Born Free also dealt with the experiences of the Adamson's (George and wife Joy, in fact) earlier in their life, but where that film almost qualified as a feel-good children's film, this one is resolutely not so, tainted with tragedy and violence.The action is perceived through the eyes of a young British drifter, Fitzjohn (John Michie) who arrives at George Adamson's African lion sanctaury after fleeing from a run-down town where he caused a fight. Fitzjohn is introduced to George Adamson (majestic Richard Harris), now a reclusive, opinionated and weathered old man in his eighties (long since separated from wife Joy) and his elephant-loving brother Terence Adamson (Ian Bannen). Before long, Fitzjohn has grown to love the lions and understand their habits almost as much as Adamson, but the Kenyan officials are determined to pull the plug on Adamson's work. Fitzjohn tries to persuade him to leave the sanctuary he has set up, and to move to a newer, freindlier environment in Tanzania, but Adamson refuses to go and is ultimately murdered for his stubbornness.This is a moving film, helped by truly superb acting (hard to believe the Academy Awards overlooked some of these performances). The photography of the African landscapes is jaw dropping. The story sticks closely to reality, but although most viewers will know the outcome before the film even begins, the sadness of George Adamson's murder still comes across powerfully in the film's heart-breaking climax. Harris, Bannen, Michie and Kerry Fox as an Oxford graduate who becomes involved in their struggle give commanding performances. There are memorable guest appearances by Honor Blackman (as Joy Adamson) and Geraldine Chaplin (as George's old flame) too. There are no real weaknesses with this film. It's just a wonderful film, well worth two hours(ish) of anybody's time.

This film is very true to actual happenings toward the end of George's life. He was a remarkable man and this movie is very well done indeed. It is funny, sad, heart wrenching and just a wonderful film to watch. I I know I am going to have to watch the story of Elsa If I can find it. I have read the bon free series as well as the biography of George by Gareth Patterson (who somehow was left out of this story including the 3 new cubs that George received just before his murder).The film also shows the true situation in Africa of the cruel slaughter of animals and the systematic corruption that plagues the governments.A truly inspiring movie, everyone should watch.