Living Free (1972) User Reviews

Impressive madness

[lochinvar-1 · 6/10 · 9 June 2009]

What a grouch some people can be! You could dislike Gone with the Wind if you set your mind to it. Pay no attention to above grouches. If you would like a touching story of a couple in Africa trying to capture and save 3 lion cubs and move them to safety in the Serengetti then you will enjoy this. Very good for children who will love the cubs. How they managed to shoot these scenes I don't know. Nigel Davenport is at least as good as Bill Travers (who was never likely to be mistaken for Laurence Olivier) and Susan Hampshire is way better than Virginia McKenna who was always an insipid blushing English lily at best.

If you like modern Hollywood films then sorry, no rape, gratuitous violence, swearing, sexual perversions or murder. Just a decent movie for decent people. Ho-hum.

Easy going young lion adventure

[Chase_Witherspoon · 6/10 · 11 June 2011]

Engaging family tale picks up where "Born Free" left off with conservationist Joy Adamson (here played by the gregarious Susan Hampshire) and her loyal husband George (Davenport replacing Bill Travers from the original) attempting to locate the mischievous trio of now orphaned lion cubs as they embark on a perilous journey through the East African savanna.

The storyline is essentially subservient to the landscape, following the cubs' trials and tribulations as they scamper about in search of easy meals, practice hunting (with amusement) and narrowly avoid danger. Davenport and Hampshire don't execute the rapport of Virginia McKenna & Travers in the first picture, although given the latter were husband and wife, that could be forgiven.

More a colourful faunalogue with which to showcase the rugged terrain and wild game of East Africa than a drama or human adventure, it's well-meaning and suitable for children even if doesn't emphasise the conservation message that prevailed in the original.

Wasn't bad

[garyldibert · 5/10 · 12 January 2014]

TITLE: LIVING FREE opened in theaters in the United States on July 12 1972 and it takes 90 minutes to watch. British drama film directed by Jack Couffer and starring Nigel Davenport, Susan Hampshire and Geoffrey Keen. This film is a sequel to the movie Born Free, which was based on the book of the same name by Joy Adamson. Joy Adamson also bases the film Living Free on a book; however, it is not based on the book by the same name but is instead based on the third book in the series, Forever Free.

SUMMARY: Born Free was a great family film with both adorable and ferocious animals in the film based on a true story, you would think it wouldn't need a sequel, but one was made. Basically the beginning of the film reminds of the vents from the previous adventure, where naturalist Joy Adamson and husband George cared for three lion cubs, letting go two to go to a zoo, but caring for Elsa until big enough to be let loose in the wild. Time has passed, and adult lioness Elsa has found herself a mate and given birth to a bred of three new lion cubs, Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa. Sadly, Elsa becomes very sick and dies, leaving behind her helpless cubs, so Joy and George take care of them until they too are grown up, which concerns their friend Kendall. The cubs do indeed grow up, but Kendall says that they are in danger of both the poachers, but also they are in a game preserve owned by the not happy Warden Weaver (Edward Judd). After seeing, them learn to hunt and kill for themselves, and enjoying their occasional company, Joy and George know that they must take action to ensure the lions are captured and taken away to another wild habitat. The misgivings clubs start to get interested in other animals. They come across a rabbit type creature and they chase him into his hole. While they three clubs look down his hole he comes out the other side and takes off. Then they come upon a baby giraffe, which they chase until one gets kick, and they take off. Then the three try to take on a cow and that doesn't go well and they last thing they come across is a snake and they get disinterested in him also.

QUESTIONS: What caused Elsa to die? How were three clubs raised? Why the cubs were turn loose? How did the three cubs survive? What did the cubs do that got them in trouble? Why were the cubs moved? Where were the cubs moved?

MY THOUGHTS: The first I will say is I don't like sequels that change the stars that made the original movie. This movie was a slow starter. It shows many clips from Born Free. However, once you get pass the opening the movie does get a little interesting. When the three clubs adventure out on their own and come across different animals is somewhat amusing. I didn't think that Nigel Davenport did as good of job as George Adamson as Bill Travers did. I did think that Susan Hampshire was much better than Virginia McKenna in the role of Joy Adamson was. I did like the sites of Africa in this movie so based on the acting the sites of this movie I give this picture 5 weasel stars.

Living Free

[jboothmillard · 4/10 · 1 November 2010]

Born Free was a great family film with both adorable and ferocious animals in the film based on a true story, you would think it wouldn't need a sequel, but one was made. Basically the beginning of the film reminds of the vents from the previous adventure, where naturalist Joy Adamson (Susan Hampshire) and husband George (Nigel Davenport, Jack's father) cared for three lion cubs, letting go two to go to a zoo, but caring for Elsa until big enough to be let loose in the wild. Time has passed, and adult lioness Elsa has found herself a mate and given birth to a bred of three new lion cubs, Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa. Sadly, Elsa becomes very sick and dies, leaving behind her helpless cubs, so Joy and George take care of them until they too are grown up, which concerns their friend Kendall (James Bond's Geoffrey Keen). The cubs do indeed grow up, but Kendall says that they are in danger of both the poachers, but also they are in a game preserve owned by the not happy Warden Weaver (Edward Judd). After seeing them learn to hunt and kill for themselves, and enjoying their occasional company, Joy and George know that they must take action to ensure the lions are captured and taken away to another wild habitat. Many attempts to catch the three lions in the large cage boxes fail, with the lions fidgeting and not going in, and a near catch going wrong, but they are eventually caught. In the end Jespah, Gopa and Little Elsa are indeed caught just before it's too late, and they are released into their new wild world. Also starring Peter Lukoye as Nuru, Shane De Louvres as Makedde and Robert Beaumont as Billy Collins. I don't know why the fantastic performers Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers declined to be in the sequel, maybe they read the script following almost exactly the same thing all over again. Hampshire and Davenport are alright but not as good, and the lions are still cute, cuddly and ferocious looking, but the title song isn't as memorable as Matt Monro's, and it is just a rehash, but not a completely terrible wildlife adventure. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film. Okay!

Ugh

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 6 March 2015]

LIVING FREE is the low budget sequel to the original African lion classic, BORN FREE. It says a lot that Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna didn't return for this follow-up, which casts Nigel Davenport and Susan Hampshire as the same characters before going on to tell the same story.

And boy, is this horrendous. All of the charm and originality of the first film is missing here, leaving LIVING FREE feeling like a cheap cash-in more than anything else. The early scenes feature some excruciating re-staging of scenes from the first movie but with the new actors, while the latter half tells a straightforward story in a long and protracted way.

The problem with this film lies with the actors, who just don't have the genuine love for the animals that the original cast members did. Particularly awful is Susan Hampshire, whose acting is embarrassingly awful: grating, overstated, sanctimonious when delivering her lines. Even worse, Millard Kaufman's screenplay presents Joy Adamson as a selfish, self-centred and quite obnoxious character who cares only for her own enjoyment, and I'm sure this is a disservice to the real-life Adamson.

The only decent scenes in this are the scenes of the lion cubs playing and interacting with the natural world, but even these moments are spoiled by Hampshire's plummy, say-the-obvious voice-overs. Although I like this 'animal' sub-genre and especially classics like RING OF BRIGHT WATER and BORN FREE, LIVING FREE is definitely worth skipping.

Touching, moving...

[BeckyKmovieluver · 10/10 · 17 February 2004]

The touching and moving sequal to "Born Free". "Living Free" sees the exellent Nigel Davenport as George Adamson and Susan Hampshire as his wife Joy Adamson. After the death of Elsa the Adamsons have to look after her orphaned cubs and when they start wreaking havok on a nearby villiage the Adamsons have little choice but to move them hundreds of miles away to live in peace at a game reserve but catching them prooves to be a big problem. Anybody who has ever seen "Born Free" will realise what a truely touching storey the tale of Elsa is. Based on a true story this sequal to "Born Free" will have you laughing and crying by the end.

Living Free

[Smalling-2 · 12 April 2000]

After Elsa's death, the Adamson couple have to undertake her cubs.

Flabby sequel to "Born Free", unnecessarily verbose and determined to gain all its charm from the cubs, who are not on the screen long enough to maintain interest.