Born Free
Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring the real-life couple Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, another real-life couple, who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood and released her into the wilderness of Kenya. The film was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia Pictures. The screenplay, written by blacklisted Hollywood writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "Gerald L.C. Copley"), was based upon Joy Adamson's 1960 non-fiction book Born Free. The film was directed by James Hill and produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin. Born Free, and its musical score, by John Barry, as well as the title song, with lyrics by Don Black and sung by Matt Monro, won numerous awards.
Plot
In the Northern province of Kenya, British Game Warden George Adamson is forced to kill a man-eating lion and his lioness. He realises too late that the lioness was charging in defence of her three cubs and so, realising the cubs are now motherless, brings them home so he and his wife Joy can raise them. They name the cubs Big One, Lustika and Elsa. When the cubs become too old, Big One and Lustika are sent off to Rotterdam Zoo whilst George and Joy keep Elsa, having become especially attached to her.
Awards
More details
author | Lester Cole |
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award | Academy Award for Best Original Score Genesis Award National Board of Review: Top Ten Films |
contentLocation | Kenya |
director | James Hill |
editor | Don Deacon |
genre | adventure drama |
keywords | attack elephant stampede forced to kill game warden indian ocean injured kill national park |
musicBy | John Barry |
nomination | Academy Award for Best Original Score |
producer | Sam Jaffe |
productionCompany | Shepperton Studios |
publisher | Columbia Pictures |
recordedAt | Kenya |
theme | children's children's adventure |