Highly Overrated But Still Good

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Impressive movie, the best I have seen about Africa, the characters are very well developed, Its inspiring what people can achieve when they really put their minds to work and their hearts are on the right frequency :DThe way in which the actor playing George Adamson (Richard Harris) interacts with the lions looks very natural, almost as if the actor borrowed the soul of an old lion while performing, he left me with an intense feeling of wonder, I'm a fine arts painter, and the expressions, landscapes, and overall feel of the movie would do for some truly impressive paintings, so much that I feel the need to go to Africa one day to do sketches of lions and landscapes, a really compelling and powerful vision, my deepest respect to George Adamson and Richard Harris, the rest of the cast does an impressive job too, but some how I was very impressed by the performance of that old Man that Walked with Lions.

This is a great film, but it is badly let down by poor directing and a very stilted performance by John Michie. Richard Harris plays George Adamson to absolute perfection and Ian Bannen is equally marvellous as his brother Terence, but John Michie is just too suave to be convincing. Its also distractingly jerky in parts almost as if the director couldn't decide if this was to be a film about George Adamson or about Tony Fitzjohn or a film that explored their relationship. Perhaps he had hoped it would do all three, but instead it just highlights the difference between a great actor at the height of his powers and someone who looks good in shorts, wastes the talents of Honor Blackman and gets a PG-13 certificate when it could have had equally as much impact and a greater potential audience as a G with very little effort.

The story of George and Joy Adamson and the lioness, Elsa, they raised and gave back to the wild was told in Joy's book and later in the film, 'Born Free', starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers.'To Walk With Lions' takes up the story some years later. George still lives on Kora, surrounded by his ever-increasing brood of lions rescued from circuses and zoos and rehabilitated for survival as nature intended. Joy has left Kora, presumably for a more conventional life elsewhere in Kenya. George's brother Terence dreams of a conservation park where he can nurture and care for his beloved elephants and keep them safe from ivory poachers. And to this strange pair of men comes a new assistant, Tony, who at first cares little for the spirituality of man-animal communication but simply wants to make money.As George Adamson, Richard Harris puts in another towering performance as the stubborn man who sees the lions as blood brothers, kindred spirits who have as much right to exist and be left alone as humans do. Ian Bannen plays Terence very well; a blustering, sarcastic old man in the early part of the film and a broken spirit following the slaughter of his beloved elephants by Africans greedy to sell their tusks. Honor Blackman makes a fleeting appearance as Joy Adamson (who was murdered by her servant in Kenya). John Michie is Tony, and Kerry Fox is Lucy, a doctoral student who befriends the tribesmen but grows to understand the life of the lions.'To Walk With Lions' is a deep film with much to say on the protection of wild animals, the changing face of Africa, and the greed and intolerance of those who only seek to do good. George Adamson's murder at 83 because he refused to leave Kora to the poachers has had a lasting effect - in real life, Tony and Lucy continue to build a sanctuary for the animals in Africa, and were eventually invited back to Kora to continue the work the Adamsons started in the 1950s.This film is about the forces of nature and the passage of time. It is a quiet, understated, and effective piece of work.

I enjoyed this film very much. My granddaughter who is 12 couldn't get through it. Because it is about George Adamson, of Born Free fame, you may be tempted to get this as a movie for the family to watch together. It's real appeal is to those of us past a certain age where we begin to think about the end of life as much as about the beginning. Richard Harris is incredible in this film as a man who refuses to let the changes time has wrought on his part of Africa or his body make him compromise any of his principles. This film will make you believe he has a spiritual connection to the lions, that lions are closer to humans than we'd like to admit. George Adamson is a much more interesting character in this movie than in the Born Free movies. The photography of Africa is spectacular, the scenes of poaching heartbreaking. This is a grown up movie about grown up issues, but it is not an unrelenting downer. It will probably inspire you to do something a little more important with the time you have left.