"Born Free" — The Movie Classic

The other day on Turner Classic Movies I watched the classic film Born Free for the very first time.

Elsa the lioness

It's a true story about a British couple, Joy and George Adamson, who lived and worked in the wilds of Kenya and, while there, raised a female lion cub, Elsa, from the age of four weeks on. Once Elsa reached adulthood, they successfully trained her to fend for herself, kill her own food, and "live free." They then released her to dwell with other lions in the wild.

The Born Free movie from 1966 was based on a 1960 book by the same title, written by Joy Adamson.

Elsa, after her return to the wild, continued to visit the Adamsons regularly. She never lost her gentleness toward and affection for her human "foster parents." As a by-that-time "wild" lioness of three years of age, Elsa would even bring her own never-tamed lion cubs to the Adamsons' for friendly visits.

Joy Adamson with Elsa

Sadly, Elsa passed away prematurely a few days short of her sixth birthday, due to a rare tick-borne disease. According to the web page "Tribute to Elsa the Lioness," Elsa died with her head in George Adamson's lap! Her ashes are marked by a headstone which can yet be visited today in Kenya's Meru National Park. Some of the ashes of Joy Adamson, who died in 1980, are buried there as well.

George Adamson's life continued until 1989. According to his Wikipedia article:

On 20 August 1989, George Adamson was murdered near his camp in Kora National Park, by Somali bandits, when he went to the rescue of his assistant and a young European tourist in the Kora National Park. He was 83 years old. He is buried in the Kora National Park near his brother Terance and Boy, one of the lions who was part of the Born Free film.

*****

These are important lessons here for us today. One is that humans can develop deep, bidirectional bonds of mutual respect and deep, lasting love even with animals from species that kill for a living.

Another lesson is that we humans, any of us, can be killers. In fact, the only reason Joy and George Adamson had an opportunity to raise Elsa and her litter mates, Big One and Lastika — both of whom were eventually donated as adults to the Rotterdam (Netherlands) Zoo — was that George, employed as a game warden in Kenya, had been forced to shoot the cubs' mother as, acting instinctively in defense of her offspring, she charged him.

The overarching lesson here is that our nature — indeed, all of nature, including that of meat-eating animals at the top of the food chain — is split. We humans can deeply love many others of God's creatures, even though some of those creatures under certain circumstance may pose deadly threats to ourselves. When it comes to our own kind, we can love some of our fellows and kill others. When we do kill, it can be a justifiable or even a righteous act ... or it can be the epitome of evil.