Gorillas im Nebel

Dian Fossey (Sigourney Weaver) brow beats Dr. Louis Leakey into letting go into the jungle to research mountain gorillas. She's joined by a local guide Sembagare and a National Geographic photographer Bob Campbell (Bryan Brown).

It's a well biopic from director Michael Apted of an amazing woman and an amazing life. The performances are first class. Sigourney Weaver is able to project a certain self confidence in the character.

The other thing I want to mention is the realism of the gorilla suits. It is hard to tell the difference between the real thing and the suits. It's of the utmost importance because we wouldn't want to be hampered by 'Planet of Apes' retreads.

Biopic seems to be the go-to description for "Gorillas in the Mist", but that's a misconception. It only focuses on Fossey's time in the mountains of Africa, and there's an awful lot of material that's glossed over (character motivations, primarily). It's a frustrating script in that respect.

But the movie succeeds where it has to, mainly in the scenes with Sigourney Weaver (superb in the role) spending time with the gorillas and earning their trust. Weave exudes tremendous heart, and despite the movie's problems, it can be extremely touching.

It's a testament to her talent.

7/10

This biographical portrait of Dian Fossey is a meticulously organized character-study work from a strenuous team behind it. The film unscrupulously binds Dian's unusual adventure with an alluring prospect of mystery gorillas' daily lives.

Director Michael Apted chooses a slight mawkish route to expose Dian's journey in the African mountains, channeling the ups-and-downs of her inner state, eventually evolving into an almost lunatic status dragging by her incurable fixation towards the creature. The latter part of the film, when Dian dare to sacrifice anything to protect her gorillas, debatably it has an utmost joy to find something worth dying for, which most of us is still looking for and possibly we will never get it.

At large the film is demystified to watch, apart from a few unavoidably horrendous scenes of massacring the primates. But a top-form Sigourney Weaver alone merits the viewing, even for sundry OTT segments, she carries the impetus all the way till her very last scene, her fully- committed devotion is an exact paragon of a n assiduous actor bringing through a so-so film to an award-worthy stature. Ms. Weaver gleaned two Oscar nominations that year (another is for supporting actress in WORKING GIRL 1988), but miserably ended both hands empty, a mishap later would fall upon my goddess Julianne Moore in 2003. And Sigourney haven't been nominated since and it's a jinx I wish Ms. Moore is not being affected (but the subsequent snubs of A SINGLE MAN 2009 and THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT 2010 are severely swaying my belief).

Back to the film, it has a genuine empathy for whoever holds a heart for the beauty of nature and the fondness for animals. Regardless of Dian's possessed mental overload, her heroic story has effectively rescued the specie from the verge of extinction is the sturdy truth which is recommendable and admirable, maybe the film will be a perfect textbook for high school students and may the world shows bountiful mercy to the afflicted land of Africa.

despite what other people might say this movie was not boring at all, it had beautiful acting, specially from Mrs. Weaver, beautiful cinematography and a strong story, just because the movie had a very sad and not expected ending it doesn't make it boring, give it a chance, we might be just giving our personal opinions. please make your own.

Based on Dian Fossey's own autobiography, this true life story is inspiring and has helped these amazing animals in many ways by waking us up to their plight. Originally Dian herself was helping to make the film, until she was murdered and the production team had to go back and start it all over again several years later in 1988.

I am aware she did complete a degree when she returned to the USA in 1980 and wrote her book, which was published in 1983, and then revised in 1985. She returned to Africa in to help the gorillas and was murdered in 1984/1985 I believe near Christmas.

She may have done things that weren't ethical according to some, though her plight to save the gorilla came first.

This movie does give a fairly accurate but slightly toned down version of the events, which took place, though there were a few changes in details. It would be impossible to fit 13 years of events into just over one and a half hours of footage. So I think Hollywood did a good job.

The main alterations, leaving out some of the details of horrific animal abuse that would have otherwise pushed the rating up to an R16 and probably left any animal lover in tears. The details they left out as well may have made the film a little to shocking for the chief censors.

The special effects makeup, I believe done by Rick Baker, and real gorilla footage is seamless, making it hard to tell which parts were real gorillas and which are very well created costumes.

After purchasing the DVD I now realize they had Dian Fossey's original tracker with them to help with the film.

All up I think this film gives us just enough drama, action and thrills to make it a hit. I think Sigorney Weaver should have won an academy award for this especially considering how brave she was to film on location with real gorilla right next to her.

This movie has inspired myself to change my career path and am also reading the book, which I would recommend for anyone who wants to see how much more horrific the events were in reality.

This movie is a must see, who knows it may even change your life.