Review of To Walk with Lions

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.