Watch Born Wild For Free

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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As far as plots go, this film has little, a woman who works for an American mega-media corporation travels to Africa to meet a bloke who lives in a tree along with his faithful native assistant. The two men have spent the last twelve years following a female leopard and her many broods. The plan is for our intrepid city slick to make a film about this valiant creature. Alas, she is already living on borrowed time, and just as the project is commissioned, the lions catch up with her. What now?The two cubs from her latest brood have survived, but won't for much longer unless they are rescued by nature boy and his sidekick. They are, now the cubs are pursued by predators on two legs who want to flog them to a zoo.Those who remember that Nature is red in tooth and claw will surely not sentimentalise over the fate of these cute but rapidly growing carnivores. Where the film does score is the stunning footage of wildlife, most of which does not appear to be from the archive.

Good (not great) wildlife footage is weighed down by a flat, uninteresting story and perfunctory human scenes (Martin Sheen collects a paycheck). The leopard cubs are cute, Brooke Shields is gorgeous (she has my favorite female body type), but the film as a whole is a bit of a well-intentioned bore. **1/2 out of 4.

In the 1990s there seemed to be a new mini-trend for BORN FREE-type movies detailing animal conservation in Africa. RUNNING WILD is one such film, a South African-shot movie featuring conservationist John Vardy playing himself, taking two orphaned leopard cubs into care and raising them almost single-handedly.Unfortunately this low budget tale feels quite twee and very artificial. The quality of the writing is below par and the script is very obvious in its depiction of human agencies and villains. The lead actress, Brooke Shields, plays a real airhead type character who just wanders through the scenery and gazes at the pretty creatures.RUNNING WILD's one saving grace is the stock nature footage, which is worth tuning in for. The leopard cubs are invariably cute and there are some other strong bits included, like predation footage which comes as a shock in places. The viewer gets a good knowledge of animal behaviour in its own environment, but I would have much preferred this to be a straightforward documentary feature rather than a failed attempt to make a real film.

John Varty, a British wildlife conservationist living in Africa, co-produced, co-wrote and acted himself in this independent production of a conservation yarn shot in Africa and co-starring Brooke Shields. This was made in 1994, that is a few years before Shields' career would bounce back with TV stardom in the Suddenly Susan series and hence at a time when she was a largely forgotten ex-star. The movie is watchable if approached with low expectations. The basic premise of the story is very promising (a young female filmmaker making a documentary about a conservationist raising two orphaned leopard cubs) and yet it has been scripted in a very incompetent manner, with lame dialog, not-fleshed out plot developments, etc. The acting is also high school performance level, unfortunately especially in Shields' case, but you may never know if it is because of the incompetent script or of any inherent incompetence of Shields. Yet, real wildlife scenes with the cubs are outstanding and make the movie worth a view.Is Shields attractive in this movie? There is no intentional glamorization of her appearance here and I don't really like her bleached hair color at all. Yet, it is Brooke Shields in her late late 20s after all and you know what I mean. Plus, it is a nice bonus to see her intermingling with leopard cubs. By the way, Shields was no stranger to Africa, having ventured to a safari in Kenya for the TV series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in 1984.