This film is about Serengeti. And the animals who live there. Especially leopards. And it focuses on... you guessed it! - a leopard!
The film is wonderful. I never watched Hugo Van Lawick's other works, but I guess they are just as great as this one. It manages to capture the first year(s) of a leopard son growing up to be an adult. His relationship with his mother is really well caught on camera and very touching.
But what sets this film apart from similar ones is the fact that it is about many animals, not just the leopard. Lions, hyenas, cheetahs, baboons, eagles - you name it. Every once and a while the camera shifts to someone else, so it is not a strict animal autobiography.
Kind of nice is that the film has a very natural feeling to it compared with other (later) Discovery works. The "later works" tended to focus more on dramatic camera angles and tons of special effects *cough* Planet Earth *cough*. This one shows the life of animals from their eye view. And there are some nice close-ups too. Hugo tries to focus on timing rather than on "dramatic camera angles". Very nice work!
The music is also outstanding. Instead of some generic African or classical music so common in later Discovery's pictures Hugo found the guts to invite Stewart Copeland of The police. Stewart has a very interesting take on rhythm and music. His score sets this movie apart from all the rest.
It's a pity this movie wasn't released on DVD yet. I guess Discovery decided to forget about one of the greatest movie it ever released and focus on something less interesting. Like dramatic camera angles, special effects and generic African music.
