| Born Free | |
|---|---|
Original film poster |
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| Directed by | James Hill |
| Produced by | Sam Jaffe Paul Radin |
| Written by | Book: Joy Adamson Screenplay: Lester Cole |
| Starring | Virginia McKenna Bill Travers |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Cinematography | Kenneth Talbot |
| Editing by | Don Deacon |
| Studio | Shepperton Studios |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 14 March 1966 (UK) 22 June 1966 (US) |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Language | English |
Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilds of Kenya. The movie was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia Pictures. The screenplay, written by blacklisted Hollywood writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "Gerald L.C. Copley"), was based upon Joy Adamson's 1960 non-fictional book Born Free. The film was directed by James Hill and produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin. Born Free, and its musical score by John Barry, won numerous awards.
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George Adamson served as chief technical advisor on the film, and discusses his involvement in his first autobiography, Bwana Game (U.K. title, 1968) known in the U.S. as A Lifetime with Lions.[1]
The making of the film was a life-changing experience for actors Virginia McKenna and her husband Bill Travers, who became animal rights activists, and were instrumental in creating the Born Free Foundation.
One of the lions in the film was played by a former mascot of the Scots Guards who had to leave him behind when they left Kenya.[2]
The film also credits lions and lionesses Boy and Girl (siblings), Henrietta, Mara, Ugas, and "The Cubs".
The Adamsons tend three orphaned lion cubs to young lionhood, and, when the time comes, the two largest are sent to the Rotterdam Zoo, while Elsa the Lioness (the youngest of the litter) remains with Joy. When Elsa is held responsible for stampeding a herd of elephants through a village, John Kendall (Geoffrey Keen), Adamson's boss, gives the couple three months to either rehabilitate Elsa to the wild, or send her to a zoo. Joy opposes sending Elsa to a zoo, and spends much time attempting to re-introduce Elsa to the life of a wild lion in a distant reserve. At last, Joy succeeds, and with mixed feelings and a breaking heart, she returns her friend to the wild. The Adamsons then depart for their home in England; a year later, they return to Kenya for a week, hoping to find Elsa. They do, and happily discover she hasn't forgotten them, and is the mother of three cubs.
The title song written by composer John Barry, "Born Free" became a pop hit for Matt Monro (who sang the song in the film), for pianist Roger Williams, and for The Hesitations. Andy Williams also covered the song, and released an album of the same name.
Vincent Canby waxed enthusiastic about the film, writing in The New York Times, "Almost from the opening shot — a vast expanse of corn-colored African plain where lions feed on the carcass of a freshly killed zebra — one knows that Joy Adamson's best-selling book "Born Free" has been entrusted to honest, intelligent filmmakers. Without minimizing the facts of animal life or overly sentimentalizing them, this film casts an enchantment that is just about irresistible."[3]
The book Born Free was followed by two other books, Living Free and Forever Free.
The Lions are Free (1969) follows the lion performers of the film Born Free. Bill Travers journeys to a remote area in Kenya to visit George Adamson, and several of George's lion friends.
A sequel, Living Free (1972), starred Susan Hampshire and Nigel Davenport as Joy and George Adamson. The sequel is based not on the book by the same name, but on the third book of the series, Forever Free.
To Walk with Lions (1999) depicts the last years of George Adamson's life, as seen through the eyes of his assistant, Tony Fitzjohn. George is portrayed by Richard Harris, and Honor Blackman makes a brief appearance as Joy.
In 1974, a thirteen-episode American television series was broadcast by NBC, entitled Born Free, starring Diana Muldaur and Gary Collins as Joy and George Adamson. The series was completely fictional.
The final installment of the television franchise so far is a television film called Born Free: A New Adventure which was released in 1996, with Linda Purl and Chris Noth. Joy and George Adamson do not appear as the main characters in the story.
The one-hour Nature documentary Elsa's Legacy: The Born Free Story was released on PBS stations in January 2011. It reviews the Elsa story and questions her release. It includes a collection of archival footage and an exploration into the lives of Joy and George Adamson during the years following release of the film.