Review of Born Free (1966) by James O — 07 May 2011

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), 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 was only protecting 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 grew quite attached to one of the lion cubs, Elsa, enough so that 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 and the game warden supervises George 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.