Product: Born Free [VHS] (1966)
Rating: 5.0
'As Free as the Wind Blows'
This movie won the 1966 Academy Awards for song and best score shared by John Barry and Don Black which is sung by Frank Sinatra; I'm surprised it didn't win more awards than it did because this is my all time favorite movie! I saw this with my parents a few years after it came out in 1965; I cry every time, love everything about this picture. Love the lions!!! Especially Elsa who hung around until the local government got tired of her antics. The maturing Elsa begins to attract wild male lions and pretty soon, it becomes all too clear it's either the zoo or the African savannah. She came to the Adamson's East African residence when she was a little cub, her parents shot and killed by her soon to be foster father, George Adamson, the game warden for the area. Getting Elsa to adjust back to life in the wild is no easy matter and is the major part of the story.The Adamsons in the movie, Travers and McKenna, were married in real life. I think Virginia McKenna's performance really made this movie. It looks like she didn't make tons of movies but has always been admired for her performances in the ones she did, sometimes winning nominations for them. For years after making the movie, she and her husband became active in conservation issues establishing the Born Free Foundation with their oldest son in 1991. She's also written a few books on the subject. The story is true and follows very closely the book written by the real Joy Adamson. Not even cursing is found in this movie!