2017
Austria
The Lions Rule
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Beginnings are money. NatGeo begins loud and dramatic, no surprise. This one feels like you've been dropped into the final shootout of <i>The Good, the Bad and the Ugly</i>. And so begins the tale of three lion prides, more appropriately <i>The Good, the Big, and the Ferocious</i> When you think about <i>The Good, the Bad and the Ugly</i> you think about the score as much as anything else. Same here. Sarah Class did magnificent work for this. It's obvious she actually <i>scored</i> the film. Each of the three prides, along with each of their territories, gets its own music (soundtrack on <a href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n8kYq4pFGApn1qhRY5IZyJAg0mJ9yb2pU&si=fZBBTtr2JM24ju_p">youtube</a> and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/sarah-class/sets/lion-kingdom">soundcloud</a>) Another audible note before getting to the story. The narration for this one is better. NatGeo uses a phlegmy baritone (Bray Poor) for dramatic effect. John Shrapnel's work here is quieter, understated. He doesn't try to fake you into feeling the drama. Many times throughout the run time, minutes go by without narration. The drama of the lions and the beauty of the location along with Sarah Class' score speak for themselves The synopsis here on LBd does a good job of laying out the basic facts of the three lion prides and this magical place, <b>The Glade</b>. The pact between the baboons and the Glade lions is whack (if actually true). The Glade pride, with only two adult lionesses, hunt giraffe. Successfully. Also whack. It's cool that all three of the prides are female lead with no resident males. But that leads to one of my few quibbles with the series ... All three of the prides have young cubs. There's lots of talk about needing to protect them from "other lions". But it's only adult males who kill babies. So what's the deal? There are adult males in the area, called The Rogue Males, four of them. They have fathered all the cubs in the three prides, but they don't hang around. They buddy up with each other and follow the buffalo. It's during the dry season when all the buffalo descend upon The Glade as the last remaining source of water in the area that these Rogue Males show up. In and of itself that's weird, but they must also have some understanding between them not to kill each others' cubs. Super weird also is that the cubs in one pride might be the product of 2 or 3 of these different males That's when this thing goes off the rails in the last ten minutes. It tries to paint a picture of the Kumbaya Nature of the prides based on a theory they are all blood related. The Rogue Males pop in from time to time, copulate freely and leave. Like that's a good thing. The Kumbaya bit is nonsense, especially since we just watched these prides rip one another apart for two hours. They do share a meal or two, even team up on a hunt, but they are not happy neighbors for the most part A little parental advisory about that: There is an extended scene where The Njaa (the pride with the best music who always enter the picture like they're on the poster for <i>Reservoir Dogs</i>) catch the Baobab Pride messing with <i>their</i> buffalo. It's war. The Njaa capture a young Baobab lioness and torture her. The Baobabs are the biggest pride in all of Ruaha. The Njaa are badass The Baobabs return and say "sorry about the buffalo thing, won't happen again". The Njaa move on but the little girl is in bad shape, can't even stand up. The pride tries to help her, but end up moving off to sit in the shade and wait to see if she can recover. Eventually they give up and start walking away, the girl's mother (or so the story goes) being the last to leave This is all done in wide shot so we can see it really happening, not an isolated shot of some lions walking and then a shot of a suffering lioness with a made up story connecting them. We see the young girl watch her mother walking away. She tries to get up but eventually falls down dead. "Last breath taken in The Glade" To make matters worse, and this is something cut from <i>Lion Kingdom</i>, we see a couple hyenas move in (with vultures overhead) and start dragging the dead cat away. Her stomach is wide open and we can see that it's been emptied, but the rest of her is intact. Dead as a door nail. It's horrible. I have never seen anything like it in a lion documentary. Lions are the good guys. We're not supposed to see them like that For those who want to get the most out of this glorious piece of film making, I suggest watching <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/lion-battle-zone/"><i>Lion Battle Zone</i></a> first. You can watch it <a href="https://abc.com/episode/2f447b43-ba6d-4eb6-a891-6a076144c4cc/playlist/PL553044961">here</a>. It's a precursor to this, and shares a little footage. Filmed in the same location with two of the prides from here, The Njaa and the Baobabs, along with a few others. The Glade is not mentioned nor is the Glade Pride, which is conspicuous considering The Glade is at the heart of the area. Look at this <a href="https://i.postimg.cc/W4zYYKrq/The-Glade.jpg">Pride Map</a> and read my <a href="https://letterboxd.com/sitenoise/film/lion-battle-zone/">review</a> for why I think that is You can watch this masterpiece (for a limited time, I imagine) on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BIVIJGDPeg">youtube</a> <a href=“https://letterboxd.com/sitenoise/list/big-cats-cream-of-the-crop/“>Big Cats - Cream of the Crop</a> Summary: ‘The Lions Rule’ is the saga of three lion families linked together by a strange, charmed place called the Glade: a beautiful oasis in Ruaha National Park where there is always water. The Glade is the territory of two old lionesses and their cubs. The Glade pride can bring down an adult giraffe – a remarkable skill. A magical Baobab forest spreads out beyond the Glade. This is the territory of the Baobab pride. They are the largest pride in all of Ruaha. The third pride are drifters – lean, mean and ruthless. They are the Njaa. The Njaa follow the buffalo. The herd is their territory and they are experts in the dark art of the buffalo kill. All three prides are lead by lionesses; there are no adult males in residence. This will play a major role in their fates. |
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