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By Brian Lafferty
March 11, 2011 (San Diego) – There is a moment towards the end of The Last Lions when I experienced an emotion called elevation. The term may be unfamiliar to most readers but the feeling isn’t. If you get tears in your eyes, a lump or tightness in your throat, and you feel uplifted, that’s what elevation is. Cocoon and Harry & Tonto are the few movies to have such power over me.
The Last Lions is a documentary about a lioness trying to raise her two cubs. After a rival pride ambushes her pack, she and her cubs are forced to live isolated in a plain populated by hyenas, buffalo, and crocodiles. With no other lions to help, survival is difficult.
For a movie to have such an emotional impact on me requires more than a simple emotional involvement in the story and characters. Common in Harry & Tonto and Cocoon are a personal, genuine sentimental relationship between the characters. When Tonto passed away at the end, I experienced elevation because the cat provided a lot of emotional support for Harry (Art Carney, who won an Oscar for the role) and vice versa. They helped each other through tough times.
Director Dereck Joubert captures this feeling in The Last Lions towards the end, a scene which will be unrevealed by me. This couldn’t have been accomplished without his personification of the lioness and her cubs. His camera conveys their instincts. As an Autistic, I often have difficulty reading facial expressions, especially in animals. The Last Lions is an exception. I could see her desperation in her eyes. I could read her motherly instinct and love towards her cubs.
The photography isn’t as eye-popping as I expected, especially considering it’s produced by National Geographic Entertainment. Joubert includes plenty of sunrises and sunsets. Extreme wide shots of the plain are common. Joubert, however, eschews an epic scope and beautification in exchange for a more naturalistic look.
I’m not saying that the film’s visuals are subpar. The movie’s tendency towards naturalism makes The Last Lions realistic. What the film lacks in dazzle is made up for with grit, giving a visual sense of the lioness’ struggle. Just as importantly, personal and emotional investment is made easier.
The Last Lions is narrated by Jeremy Irons, who functions as a guide through the story. Rather than describe what occurs on screen, he directs our attention to the right places. His voice has a loosely similar effect as James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman: it’s always soft, calm, relaxing, and audibly pleasing.
It’s also fitting that Irons was chosen as the narrator. I will forever remember him most as the voice of the malevolent Scar in The Lion King. Like The Lion King, The Last Lions knows how to tug on the heartstrings.
The Last Lions is currently playing at the Landmark La Jolla Village and the Landmark Hillcrest.
A National Geographic Entertainment release. Written and directed by Dereck Joubert. Photographed by Dereck Joubert. Music by Alex Wurman. Narrated by Jeremy Irons. Rated PG. 88 minutes.
Brian Lafferty can be reached at Brian@eastcountymagazine.org. You can also follow him on Twitter: @BrianLaff.
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