Watch Born Free For Free

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

i must have seen a different film!!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Born Free has an interesting post colonial undertone of 1960s Kenya. Elsa the lion symbolizes the British controlled colony and the white settlers in Kenya (Joy and George) symbolize the British who realize that it would be wrong to free Kenya/Lions without proper training and preparation to survive in the real world. It is very revealing that the white people in the film are the ones who know how to train the lions and take care of them and the blacks in the film are basically followers and do not have the ability to raise and care for the animals. We see the same logic in the history of colonization. White Europeans realize that only THEY know what is best for Africa and the Africans are simply expected to follow. And what's the deal with George and his malaria??? Not sure what the purpose is in bringing that up. The trailer is hilarious!!! They keep saying the lions live in the jungle!!! I think that was to appeal to the audience ignorant of Africa--probably most Americans in the 60s did think Africa was one big jungle.

This true-life account of a Kenya game warden's wife, Joy Adamson (Virginia McKenna), who raises three female lion cubs after their mother and father are shot is endearing. The game warden, George Adamson (Bill Travers of "Duel at Diablo"), is dispatched to kill a man-eating lion. No sooner has he killed the murderous lion than a lioness attacks them, and he is forced to bring it down, too. Too late they discover that the lioness sought only to protect her three cute cubs. George and Joy rear the three cubs and eventually give them to a zoo, but Joy is too grief-stricken by their obligation to watch her husband put them on an airplane. It seems that Joy has grown quite attached to one of the lion cubs, Elsa, enough so George keeps her for Joy. They make a docile pet out of Elsa, and the young lioness has a free run of the compound. Things get complicated when Elsa incites a herd of elephants to stampede through a village. George's immediate superior, Kendall (Geoffrey Keen of "The Spy Who Loved Me", demands that they ship Elsa off to a zoo. Naturally, Joy opposes this plan and she works hard to return Elsa to the wild where she was born free. Along the way, George suffers from a bout with malaria, but he survives and helps Joy ensure that Elsa makes it in the wild. Composer John Barry, who rose to fame and fortune with his orchestral scores to the James Bond film franchise, received an Oscar for his soundtrack as well as the title tune. Director James Hill received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.

1st watched 9/4/2007 - 7 out of 10(Dir-James Hill): Fascinating study of lioness born free, but domesticated; then being trained to survive again in the wild. This is a unique film in that it deals with some real issues about making a wild animal a pet and the effect on it because of that. The movie begins with an African game warden, played by Bill Travers, killing an adult lion that is attacking humans but leaves behind three pups. The game warden and his wife, played by Virginia McKenna, decide to take in the pups since they lost their parents and would eventually starve to death in the wild. They are finally able to get them to feed off of their homemade formula and grow, but when it comes time to release them back to the wild the wife's attachment to the smallest that she named Elsa, has grown and they decide to keep her. Elsa quickly becomes their pet and attaches herself to them, but they know eventually she'll have to leave. They avoid the issue of sending her to a zoo because they want Elsa to be free, but then they must take on the challenge of re-training her for the wild. This turns out to be harder than they expected and their trials with this becomes the subject of the rest of the movie. This is all very well done and helps us realize the difference between pets and animals living in the wild and shows us the respect we should have of the differences. There is a good balance of sentimentality with reality as this couple thinks hard about every decision it makes thinking not just for themselves but for Elsa. This a unique movie that can be enjoyed by persons of all ages and also teaches us some things that we rarely see on film.

While thoroughly entertaining for audiences of all ages, this mostly accurate true story has the distinction of being one of the most important films ever released. Why you say? Until the publication of the Adamson Born Free trilogy of books (Born Free, Living Free and Forever Free) lions, and most wild animals, were considered in the human consciousness in one way - dangerous. This franchise of books and movies, most especially the widely viewed Born Free film, changed all of that throughout the entire world. The Adamsons, both in real life and as depicted so expertly by real life husband and wife actors Travers and McKenna (who actually spent as much time with their actor lions as the Adamsons had with Elsa and family had) demonstrated that a wild animal, Elsa, could be emotional and full of love for her caretakers. Having personally raised an African lion for more than a decade (not to mention countless other wild animals) I can attest to this being so. But more importantly Born free showed the world this was so. As an impressionable pre-teen when this film was initially released, I can recall the impact it had on all of those my age and their parents as well. That change in attitude continued to grow and the development of insightful studies via National Geo, Discovery Channel, et. al, has assisted mightily in helping protect animals. I'm afraid, without Born Free we would have succeeded in eradicating all free roaming wildlife, thank goodness that at least some remain! While Born Free accomplished this change in mankind's perspective, there are true heroes who have dedicated their lives to protecting animals in whatever manner they may. Perhaps the greatest of these protectors is world renowned Jane Goodall, who has been studying and communicating with the world on wild chimpanzees since the release of Born free in 1960 or so! People fret that the youth have no role models, they are out there folks, and visible, just need to direct these impressionable minds to the right people like Jane Goodall.