Duma

"Nature breaks through the eyes of the cat." Irish proverb

With the emergence of digitized everything, photography of the actual thing is now the amazement. Splendid is everything visualized in Duma, the story of a young South African boy, Xan (Alex Michaeletos) who brings up an orphaned cheetah, Duma, to the day when his father (Campbell Scott) decides it is perilously close to the time when Duma couldn't survive in the wild.

And so, about the time they are to return Duma to his world, Xan becomes a sort of orphan himself because dad dies and leaves Xan and his mother with a big ranch to tend. As predictable as the right of passage story that ensues with Xan taking Duma back, there is a freshness of simplicity and beauty, joy and sorrow that overwhelms the clichés and makes you eager to go back to animal stories of early film, like Old Yeller, where the pets are as human than their masters and make real the abstract idea of Nature.

An unusual care for lens and animal is palpable from director Carroll Ballard and cinematographer Werner Meritz, unforgettable even. The four cheetahs used for Duma are as often lensed close up as they are in long shots, beautifully stretching their sixty-mile –an-hour legs.

With the consistency director Carroll Ballard showed in the acclaimed Fly Away Home, he weaves the theme of abandonment and reconciliation into every major scene: Even the enigmatic intruder Rip (Eamon Walker) has exiled himself from his tribe and is now returning home, cruising the river with Xan like Huck and Jim. That eventually animals and humans must take up their responsibilities is also present almost from the first frame.

Nothing new here, just a good old-fashioned pet tale, which never is boring for me, a perpetual boy with an English major's tendency to see poetry in a landscape or a cheetah's eye.

"Nature never did betray the heart that loved her." Wordsworth

This movie is so good, I wonder why it is in such limited release? At least in Wales, it only plays for two showings each weekend. Anyway--- I like animal movies, generally. Even those that stray into a bit of the fantasy, such as 'Bingo', and 'Two Brothers', can be enjoyable and charming.

'Duma' was delightful. I have not read about the making of the movie, but they did use real cheetahs. Some kittens, adolescents, and maybe adults, too. I found the representations of the human-cheetah relationship entirely believable. And even though this is a 'family' movie, and suitable for 12 year-olds, it was also solid enough to get an adult through it as well. The peril is plausible, the characters' motivations and behaviors seem reasonable.

Overall, the movie worked well enough as a movie--- entertaining, dramatic, etc. But more, and the reason I gave it a 10 out of 10, is the movie also seemed to portray the charm, grace, and dignity of a truly great relationship a human can have with an animal. That, placed in the movie-world context of family drama and human enterprise, is a wonderful and magical thing.

This film was a rare pleasure to behold, much like the joy I experienced in September 1993 at the Toronto International Film Festival screening of "SIRGA: L'infant Lion" (yet to be released on DVD in North America although released in Germany a few years ago). There are deeper messages here and these are truly welcome, unlike so much of the swill that passes for family entertainment these days. As much as I enjoyed "Two Brothers" (Jean-Jacques Annaud) recently, I do prefer this film by a director whose last film I enjoyed at the Toronto Festival some 8+ years ago - "Fly Away Home".

The journey taken by the 12 year old boy reminds me somewhat of the journey taken by a slightly younger lad and his sister in the also-compelling early 70s Nicholas Roeg film "Walkabout" which I also highly recommend if you like nature-type films (or should I say "au natural" type films ... ha ha). I rate this one 9 out of 10.

Anyway make sure you get to see this once it comes to your part of the world either theatrically or, likelier on DVD.

Our family saw Duma yesterday and we loved it so much, I had to place our vote today! Congratulations to Carroll Ballard, Warner Brothers and everyone else responsible for creating such a beautifully filmed movie with an equally as wonderful story! Duma is a must see for children; it sure beats most everything else out today in terms of story quality! The cinematography was incredible and all scenes involving animals were wonderfully done. I hope that big studios bring us more movies of this caliber for family entertainment. I for one, and hopefully not the only one, am tired of special effects carrying a movie as well as heroes and villains that are way too out of the ordinary.

Being used to today's explosion-filled, fast-paced movies being churned out on a weekly basis for the sake of selling tickets, Duma is what I'd like to say a slap in the face for all of us who get excited over the mediocrity that has brought out "The Interpreter," "Stealth," and what else is playing now...? A movie that I would definitely recommend for an entire family to watch together, there's nothing in here that would make you want to cover your kids' eyes or ears up at anytime. Instead you'd want for them, and for yourself, to sit up and pay attention to this smooth, smart movie.

Don't wait for any explosions. There is a story being told in this movie, and its being told with a fresh touch of poetry which I haven't seen in a long time.

I gave this movie an 8/10 because of one reason: Although the movie is set in Africa, its really hard to tell until halfway through the movie. In fact, the place looked whiter than Little Rock, Arkansas! But it got an 8/10 because of the story, the storytelling, and the smooth pace at which the movie flows.