Movie Biographies: To Walk with Lions

1999 Movie Biography

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Carl Schultz

Starring

Richard Harris

John Michie

Kerry Fox

Ian Bannen

Hugh Quarshie

Honor Blackman

Geraldine Chaplin

Here is a hidden treasure of a movie, a follow-up of sorts to the 1966 ultra-popular Born Free.  To Walk with Lions is the story of George Adamson, now in his 70s, the Kenyan wildlife conservationist, author and lover of lions.  Long separated from his wife, the author of Born Free, Joy (although they spend every Christmas together), George still lives on the Kora National Preserve where he continues to take in lions that he eventually releases into the wild.

At Kora George (Harris) lives with his brother Terence (Bannen) who has the same love and concern for elephants that George has for lions.  There are small cabins on Kora where the Adamson brothers and their loving native staff reside and an open but covered shelter where they eat and commune with one another and guests.

The story opens with the arrival of 27-year old Tony Fitzjohn (Michie), also the narrator of the piece.  He is an adventurer, born out of his time, a restless spirit driven by a lifelong love of the wild.  He has been hanging around the coast of East Africa where the money runs out, he says, as it always does.  He says he leads an aimless, self-indulgent and undisciplined life which he highly recommends.

A job he's been hoping to get doesn't work out and he hitches a ride with Terence who tells him that his brother George is looking for an assistant.  Why not, says Tony.  

Tony's first day is memorable when he gets out of a lory to join George who is standing nearby with a lion.  When it looks like the lion is about to charge, George tells Tony to back up slowly but the frightened Tony runs to the lory and barely gets in before the lion can get him.  The animal jumps up on the vehicle and tries to grab him through open windows before George can calm him down.

George is a curmudgeon and not always the easiest man to get along with but he and Tony form a strong relationship.  George asks Tony how long he intends to stay and Tony says oh, 10-15 years.  He stayed 18 and grew to love George as a son would love his father.  They have a love of lions and Kora and Africa in common and drinking and a rebelliousness and a real talent for making people angry.

A short time into his stay, Tony and a lion friend are walking outside of the compound when Tony is severely mauled by a male lion that George had once raised and had freed.  They came to find out the lion had attacked because he had been poisoned.  George comes running and together with the lion friend, they disentangle Tony.

Michie and Harris

The real Tony Fitzjohn said about the incident... the funny thing about being mauled by a lion is that they don't bite chunks out of you-- they suffocate you.  That was about to be accomplished with Tony's head completely in the lion's mouth.  After regaining consciousness, Tony says to George am I dying?  And the old man replies I think you probably are but I'll do my best.

The Kenya Wildlife Service wants to close down Kora and send the lions away, although they likely know that George is too stubborn and far too famous for that to happen anytime soon.  In the meantime, they tell him that he is to stop killing game to feed the lions he keeps on the compound.  His only choice is to buy food which he can ill afford.   

Although Tony is a genuinely nice guy, he has a hair trigger and little patience.  Talking to the local authorities about the future of Kora may have done more bad than good.  But he does meet Lucy (Fox) who is in Africa for many of the same reasons Tony is and though they have a rough start, they do embark on a romantic relationship and she is often at Kora.  (Outside the purview of the film, Tony and Lucy will marry.)

Christmas comes and Joy (Blackman) arrives for her annual visit.  She has an antagonistic relationship with Terence but flirts with the handsome, shirtless Tony and seems to mourn the days she and George were together.  Finally she asks him if there's any chance of getting back together.  George responds with Joy, you are the great love of my life but if you were the last woman on earth, I would not live with you.  She leaves sadder than when she arrived and a short while later George was very sad when he learns Joy was murdered by one of her staff.

Armed poachers have become a serious threat to wildlife and people.  One day Terrence goes on a walk to see nearby elephants.  As he is approaching a mound he hears shooting on the other side.  Arriving at the top he sees numerous dead elephants and men sawing off tusks.  He seems to go mad watching it and as he runs toward them with only a machete in hand, officials arrive and chase away some of the men and kill others.  A day or so later, while George is talking to him at their long, outside table, Terence dies.

Around the time that George is growing more infirm, Tony, at Lucy's coaxing, has the chance to move to Mkomazi in Tanzania to carry on with conservation work but he didn't want to leave George.  He tried to talk George into coming along and having an even better opportunity to care for lions but George refuses to leave Kora and the two men have a rare unpleasant conversation.

Tony and Lucy go without George knowing the machine gun-toting Somali poachers and terrorists are near Kora.  Government authorities arrive to take George and his staff away but all refuse to go.  One day as Tony is traveling back to Kora, he hears that 83-year old George has been murdered.  Whether or not his death happened exactly as it does in the film, it sure did make for a dramatic, heart-rending finale.   

There is no way in hell I would not like this movie.  I love biographies, adore movies that take place in Africa... and lions!  Of course I loved Born Free, loved everything about it.  All three hardback copies of Joy Adamson's novels about Elsa are right behind me on a shelf longing to go dusty.  But compared to this film, Born Free is like a Disney film... all goodness and light... and played engagingly by real-life marrieds Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers.  The real Adamsons could only wish they looked that good.

Here there are no cubs to cuddle or a lovey-dovey couple or a hit song.  This is, as outlined, much darker but oh so honest.  It is most especially about George's battle to protect the lions and Tony's opportunity to learn a new type of living, one with such purpose.  It is a biography of two people and every bit as much about Tony as it is about George. 

Richard Harris was born to play George Adamson.  The actor always had a penchant for playing outsiders, rebels, disagreeable sorts and George was all of that.  The two men even looked alike in their 70s.  Richard the Lion-Hearted was playing the old lion himself.  His George is never unlikeable but he likes things run his way.  Harris touchingly gets across the point that old George is just as territorial as his lions.  I have truly liked Harris in a half dozen or so roles but this has got to be my favorite.

A joy was watching John Michie.  I had no idea who he was when I first saw To Walk with Lions so, of course, he really is Tony Fitzjohn to me.  And I still have no idea who he is outside of this film because I've never seen him in another one.  He is delightfully appealing (remember handsome and shirtless?) and he has made Fitzjohn so engaging as well as he blossoms under the tutelage of George.  

While I found Harris so exquisite and Michie so enjoyable, Fox, Bannen and Quarshie as a safari guide also delivered.  Chaplin looks wonderful as a friend of George's whose visit turns dramatic.  Blackman also looked gorgeous and regal and I think that was a bow to the actress rather than a nod to Joy.  Her brief single scene and its attendant flirtation seemed somewhat out of place.

The film doesn't have the sweeping cinematography of Born Free but that is in no way intended to diminish what is seen here with Jean Lépine's work.  It seems near impossible to photograph the African heartland in a less-than-picture-perfect way.  All scenes involving animals are superbly done, whether it's the heartbreak of killings or watching lions interact with the two stars.

Director Carl Schultz is another person I know nothing about but this seems to be a film that needed a number of separate items to be pulled together and I thought he accomplished all he needed to.

I can get pretty choked up when people come to the aid of animals.  I think what George and Tony did for lions (and leopards in real life but not the film) is so admirable.  

This is also a tribute to friendship, to male bonding and it brings heart and soul to this superior film.  I found the whole experience inspiring.  I think you might, too.

The real George and Tony

As a point of interest, as of this writing, the real Tony Fitzjohn is still alive, at almost 76.  Thanks to his life and learning with George, Tony went on to achieve a pretty fair amount of glory himself.  He is a recognized conservationist who established and stocked the first successful rhinoceros sanctuary in Tanzania.  He gained national park status for two game reserves.  For 30 years he rehabilitated zoo animals into the wild.  He established the first captive breeding program for the endangered Africa Hunting Dog in East Africa.

Additionally he provided local communities with a clean water supply, dispensary and Flying Doctor service and spent 20 years developing and supporting anti-poaching units.  He also found the time to rebuild Kora (for George, he said.).  For this and all other work, Tony was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2006. 

Here's the trailer:

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