The Ivory Game

The documentary explores operations of poachers in Africa and further trafficking of illegal ivory to Asia where it is sold to local wholesalers who subsequently can deliver it to your doorstep a 'nominal' fee. The undercover footage gives the documentary great validity and evidential basis. Must be watched - thought-provoking and horrifyingly real.

Maybe it's just me getting older and more melancholy or emotional but I think that after decades of watching 'Man's inhumanity to Man', for the last 20 years or so I've been waatching 'Man's Cruelty to Animals, in this particular case, The Elephant. This docu in which Actor-Conservationist Leonardo Di Caprio has a hand, along with many authorities from Africa, Hong Cong, USA, China including Andrea Crosta, Richard Leakey, Ian Stevenson and from the UK, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. Elephants butchered in their hundreds by poachers who want the almost priceless tusks which are eventually sold onto the Chinese Illegal Markets and turned into various trinkets and items, many for tourists and the really pricey ones sold to collectors. It will be a 'Kleenex' job watching this for most. "The" Mr Big, a guy named Boniface Mariango aka Shetani is the prize that these braver - than - brave soldiers, animal protectors, conservationists all want to capture. I won't spoil it with the result. Personally, I would prefer that ALL the people in authority who take bribes leading down to the actual poachers who cause and oversee this destruction of ALL and ANY animals to gain a few hundred dollars but often much less, were introduced to one of the cartridges of the AK47's they use and THEIR carcasses left on the savannah.

Very good about an unspoken problem, we live in a world where people care more about how they look and what they can buy than actually solving real problems we create.

Documentary film seen on the 10th to the 11th of March 2021.

This is a must see documentary about the desperate battle to save the elephant from extinction, and at the same time save some remnants of the beautiful natural heritage of a planet for future generations. We say we love our children, but what kind of world are we leaving them. See the front line defenders of these majestic beasts in some of Africa's leading game parks, as well as dedicated investigators and campaigners around the world, bravely trying to stop the criminal and barbaric syndicates from plying their deadly trade.

This gets a passing grade because it's an important subject and has some compelling moments, but as a film, I thought this was quite weak, or at least lacking.

I got the sense that a great deal of footage was shot around a broad subject, without much in the way of structure or narrative planned ahead, and then the finished film came together in the editing. There are a few stories going on at once, and while the interviews and editing do their best to connect it all, but I didn't buy it. It felt less like a full feature film and more like watching a 6-part miniseries where you only catch 20 minutes of the first episode, 20 minutes of the second, and so on.

Hunting an endangered species like the elephant only for their ivory is terrible, and I admire the people in this film for devoting themselves to making it a thing of the past. It's important to expose the individuals and institutions who allow such a trade to happen, and if this film has changed the world at large for the better, then it deserves praise. But if you want a story, or something that progresses in a logical fashion, or just something that's compelling in a way that the best documentaries out there are, you may not find it with The Ivory Game.

Despite featuring competent visuals, music, and knowledgeable interviewees, it doesn't flow at all and is surprisingly unengaging. It's a noble film and overall not a terrible one; more just one that isn't very involving or exciting. If it sounds really up your alley, I could give it a hesitant recommendation, but otherwise I'd say go watch any of the other 5,000,000 documentaries currently on Netflix.