Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4044 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-01
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sigourney Weaver more than earned her Oscar nomination for Best Actress in Gorillas in the Mist, dominating every frame of Michael Apted's biopic about primatologist Dian Fossey. Tenderly mothering an orphaned gorilla infant or terrorising an African poacher with a staged lynching, the statuesque star is never less than fiercely focused, a glamorous warrior for animal rights. As the amateur scientist who researched and spotlighted Rwanda's endangered mountain gorillas in National Geographic, Weaver is the passionate heart that keeps an otherwise flaccid film alive.

Unfortunately, the film's stodgy script and direction simply document Fossey's magnificent obsession, offering no insight into what lonely impulse of the soul led this extraordinary woman to climb up an African mountain to bond so strongly with gorillas. Cardboard characters include an eternally smiling, sexless African soulmate (John Omirah Miluwi), a perfect boyfriend (Bryan Brown) who has to be dumped in favour of gorilla-love, and stereotypical villains. Still, the African scenery is spectacular, and who can resist the cross-species thrill when the huge dark hand of Digit, Fossey's favourite, first rests in her outstretched palm? Gorillas in the Mist will please those who savour Sigourney Weaver's Amazonian fervour and the pure fire of her physical and spiritual passion--and harbour a slightly misanthropic fondness for liaisons between beauties and beasts. --Kathleen Murphy

Special Features
Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Featurette

1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen

Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Languages: English, German, Spanish

Hearing impaired: English, German
Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Portuguese, Romanian

Synopsis
Based on anthropologist Dian Fossey's autobiography, and an article by Harold T. P. Hayes, GORILLAS IN THE MIST is a portrait of the determined woman who will do anything to save the mountain gorillas that she studies, and for whose well-being she has a passionate commitment. In the process, she draws international attention to their declining population, yet her obsessive work to save them also eclipses her personal life and brings her into ruinous confrontation with relentless, impoverished poachers. At times recalling Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, the film touches on both Fossey's nobility--and inhumanity. To capture her passion, and the sublime African landscape, director Michael Apted shot on location in Rwanda, where the anthropologist lived and worked. Sigourney Weaver, playing Fossey, gives an intense portrayal (garnering an Academy Award nomination) of the woman who almost singlehandedly reversed the extinction of the mountain gorillas in Africa.

Customer Reviews

Excellent
Very realistic and moving portale of the real story of Diane Fossy and the Grorillas of Rwanda and Uganda, especially interesting as these countries are back in the news with the current fighting threateding the Gorillas yet again.

A sympathetic portrait
I feel mixed about biopics as I'm always aware that no film maker could ever make an accurate film about somebody's life. It would be interesting to see how the film compared with the facts....

About the film itself:

The film starts with Dian asking for a job studying the mountain gorillas. It then quickly moves on to her arrival and adjustment to working in the jungle. After some searching she comes across her first gorillas. Shortly afterwards she's expelled to Rwanda.

From then on the film slows down and allows us to see her as she integrates herself into a group of gorillas. As the gorillas accept her she feels more and more kinship with them and her fight against poachers gets more and more extreme.

The film manages to show the other side of the issues concerned, mainly through the voices of the Information Minister and her guide, and still give us an affectionate portrait. You do need to be in serious mood to appreciate it.

Lovely film
Sad but gorgeous film with lovely scenery. I became a great gorilla fan after watching this moving true story.