Movies Reviews

African Cats – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Apr 21, 2011, 10:01 GMT

A nature documentary centered on two cat families and how they teach their cubs the ways of the wild. ...more

The sight of magnificent beasts roaming the savannahs of Kenya stirs the blood, and speaking of blood, plenty is shed in this eye popping documentary.  It is the latest in a string of recent animals-in-nature films, each of which is unique and gripping in its own way. 

African Cats is about the tooth and claw existence of two cat prides struggling to exist in a patch of land on either side of a dangerous, crocodile infested river.

The crocodiles are crucial elements in the unfolding of this story of war and domination. With the rival groups – cheetahs and lions - staring each other down from opposite edges of the water, we know only one thing stops them from tearing each other apart – the crocodiles just under the surface.  The cats have a healthy respect for these silent menaces that could crack a lion in two with its jaws.

And so things go until the height of summer when the river water evaporates and it’s easy for a lion crossing the river to see if a crocodile lurks.  And then the pride leaders can have at it to decide who will be the victor and who will be forced by the immutable laws of nature to slink away forever, leaving behind his lionesses, his cubs and his stature.

The violence that permeates the wild animals’ lives is unimaginable; we know they eat other animals to live, sometimes their own species, but seeing it up close, repeatedly, with all kinds of diverse life forms on the menu, is something else.  It is almost too intense, but it’s what happens and that’s all there is to that.  It’s real, insofar as documentaries are real.  

We see a history of animal kingdoms over the course of 90 minutes that takes weeks, months and years to occur; generations rise up as the earlier ones fade,  loyalties are shifted, love and disdain change things, in all, it’s a hell of a blood and guts soap opera out there on the hot plains of Africa.  It’s tough, emotional and unrelentingly heartbreaking.

The filmmakers got really close to their subjects, close enough to feel their breath it seems.   It’s amazing the access they got.  The detail is terrific, as the cameras are able to zoom in on one animal’s ribcage as it falls to the ground in exhaustion, and on another’s lean, fluid muscles as it changes its pace from stealth to run to lunge.

Samuel L. Jackson’s dramatic narration seems a little over the top and some of the scripting is a tad dramatic – the action we’re seeing is drama enough, trust me. 

I don’t think the filmmakers need to make it a story with a beginning, middle and end although they’ve succeeded in doing that.  It adds a construct that imposes itself o the shape of nature itself. But it’s a small complaint. 

The film is a powerful reminder of nature’s majesty.

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35mm nature documentary
Directed by Allistair Fothergill, Keith Scholey
Opens: April 22
MPAA: G
Country: USA
Language: English