Born Free

I have a confession to make . . . I'm becoming obsessed with all things related to the movie Born Free.

I feel quite certain that I probably saw the movie as a child but I don't remember actually seeing it.  Then, a year or so ago I watched the movie and really enjoyed it.  It came on cable a few months ago, along with the sequel Living Free and I recorded both of them and watched them the weekend before last.

I'm not sure what happened but it affected me differently this time around.  I became very attached to Elsa, the lion the movie is based on.  Watching Born Free I wondered if she was still alive so I did a search of how long lions live.  The life expectancy of a lion in the wild is 15 years.  In captivity the life expectancy is 25 years.  When I read that I knew that Elsa was likely gone a long time.  And then I got annoyed because I felt that by deciding to release Elsa into the wild again that George and Joy Adamson effectively made the decision to cut her life expectancy almost in half for reasons that had nothing to do with what was in Elsa's best interest.  You see, by this point I had decided that they trained her to go back into the wild for recognition and fame.

So by the time I started to watch Living Free, I already didn't like George or Joy.  I would mention that I'm about to post a spoiler but since this is 50+ year old news I'll just say that if you don't know what happens and want to discover it somewhere else, you should stop reading now.  Okay then.  In the first 5 minutes of Living Free, Elsa dies.  I was totally shocked and immediately did a search of Elsa online.  She died at age 5.

I was upset and felt that George and Joy's selfish and egotistical decision had cut Elsa's life short by 80%.  I liked them even less.

But despite that, for some reason I ordered the book Born Free from my library.  I read it and it changed my opinion of George.  He was a good man who really cared about Elsa.  My opinion of Joy only got worse from reading the book.  Not only did it show no love or compassion for Elsa in the writing, it confirmed that for her it was an "experiment".

Since reading the book I've ordered the two other books in the series and have read excerpts from them.  I've also watched some documentaries and read archived articles on George, Joy and Elsa.

The bottom line is that through Elsa's story we see unconditional love from Elsa to the humans who raised her, despite that they didn't always act in her best interests and repeatedly betrayed her trust.  That love is what has me so obsessed with this story.  Elsa was an incredible creature and despite her having died before I was even born, I feel her loss and feel compelled to contribute in some way to a cause that would protect the species and educate people about their value.  It's an amazing story that if you haven't read it or seen the movie, it's worth the efforts to do so.

As for George and Joy, what I read about them and saw in documentaries is that my second opinions of the two were accurate.  George was an amazing human being who spent his life making sure animals were protected and treated with respect.  Everyone who met him loved him and only spoke highly of them.  Joy, on the other hand, was not a good person.  She was selfish and manipulative and cared only for herself.  The book Born Free was taken from George's notes, written in part by him and edited by him, yet she wouldn't share the income from the franchise with him.  In 1970 a lion George was rehabilitating attacked a child (the child survived) and he was forced to move to a more isolated area to continue his work.  Joy wanted to move on from lions (for more recognition) and refused to go with him.  He had no money and was living off of camel meat and tinned army rations while Joy gave money to foundations all over the world but she refused to help George because he didn't do as she'd demanded.  All comments about Joy in the documentaries and articles was that she was not a pleasant person and difficult to be around.  Despite having no money, George had workers to worked with him without compensation.  Joy, on the other hand, was murdered by a paid employee because of how she had treated them.  That says a lot about the people.

But, as I said, I feel a void and a sadness that Elsa is gone and it calls me to action on behalf of animals like her.  I'm not sure what I will do but I hope it is meaningful and honors a life that was cut way too short.