Review of The Last Lions (2011) by Curt M — 30 Mar 2011

This is a superb "documentary" film, even if it is manipulative. Dereck and Beverly Joubert, award winning filmmakers from Botswana, made the film to raise money for Big Cats Initiative, a program with National Geographic designed as an emergency action fund to stop the decline that has seen lion numbers drop from 450,000 to 20,000 in 50 years.

Smartly, though unusual for a documentary, the filmmakers told a story, the story of a lioness raising her cubs in the wild. So rather than numbers and statistics, we get a compelling narrative. The wilds of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, just north of South Africa, are a dangerous place.

And like any good story, we are not spared the pain and tension of serious trouble. There are segments that are so horrifying, you will be tempted to turn your head from the screen.The problem--if there is one--is that the writers infuse the the script with human thoughts and emotion, which may or may not be part of the mother lion's (Ma di Tau or "mother of lions" in Setswana, a language of Botswana) actual thought process.

The smooth as butter narration by Jeremy Irons helps us to readily accept what some may say is an overly sentimental, contrived story. At one point, the lioness is shown with blood dripping from one side of her face.

Moments later--though it is ostensibly the same scene-- through editing, the blood has magically disappeared. While we know intellectually that this documentary has been cut and pasted over many years, these errors hurt the films credibility and remind us that that--at least to some extent--the story is contrived.

Despite that, I'm giving it five stars. Most of us go to the movies for a good story, and with "The Last Lions" that's what we get.