...	(Director)
	...	(Writer)
Nainita Desai	...	Composer

Comments: A classic that's been lost to the ether. It played on BBC2 a few times and disappeared. Not surprising, I guess, because it is gimmicky. But I think the gimmicks work (except for the miniature onboard animal cameras).

They use a good amount of satellite and sonar imagery and set it to a War Games scenario. When a lion roars they show a visual tsunami ripple across the plains ... goofy stuff like that but if you're a visual learner it's compelling. The overhead shots of how lions set up stalks and ambushes in complete silence is amazing. A group of lions surrounds a group of zebras and waits patiently (like hours, sometimes) for one of them to step outside their 12 meter safe zone (lions have to be that close or the zebra can outrun them). Literally one zebra hoof touches the ground within 12 meters and it's dead within 30 seconds

This has to have been shot in the Ngorongoro Crater, although it's never named. It's described as a 100 square mile Battle Zone surrounded by a 2,000 foot high escarpment. That's Ngorongoro. When they talk about the wildebeest migration passing through, it's bullshit. The reality of Ngorongoro Crater is that animals can't get in nor out of it. That's probably why they didn't name it. Minor quibble, I guess

Big Cats - Cream of the Crop


Summary: Lion Battlefield is a story about a pride of lions, and how daily interactions with their prey, their competitors and their deadly enemies, could affect the lives of their cubs. A chance encounter with a herd of buffalo could provide the pride with food for a week, but these hefty animals form a co-ordinated unit of advance guards, flankers and rear guards that can turn the tables and decimate a pride.