Born Free (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Running Free, Stuart Little 1 And 2, Living Free
Rating
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	91:14 (Case: 95)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Version Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	James Hill Tom McGowan
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Virginia McKenna Bill Travers Geoffrey Keen Peter Lukoye Omar Chambati Bill Godden Robert S. Young Bryan Epsom Geoffrey Best Robert Cheetham Surya Patel
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	John Barry

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Born Free is based on the book by Joy Adamson, first published in 1960. Adamson was born in 1910 in Austria as Friederike Gessner and was apparently always interested in lions, though at one stage she seriously considered psychotherapy (as a career, not as a solution...).

    Together with her third husband, George, she worked tirelessly to help wildlife in Africa until her violent death at the hands of poachers in Kenya in 1980. Her efforts via books and films (Born Free and Living Free) did much to draw the world's attention to the plight of wildlife in Africa.

    This film, directed by James Hill and Tom McGowan, was released in 1966 and was a hit upon its release, even winning 2 Oscars (for John Barry's theme song and original score).

    Most readers will probably be aware that Born Free focuses mainly on Joy, played somewhat stiffly by Virginia McKenna and her husband George, played occasionally hysterically stiffly by Bill Travers, and their relationship with the three lion cubs they 'adopt'. The story follows the couple's eventually successful attempts to bring up one of these lions, Elsa, from infancy (with no previous experience available anywhere), and to release her back into the wild rather than have her live out her days in captivity.

    This is a classic film, as effective now as it was on its release. There is plenty of wonderful scenery, grand music and lovely real animals (not witty animated facsimiles that dominate family films of late). The story itself is actually reasonably fast moving and contains elements of drama, tension and genuinely humorous moments as the animals adapt to human life, and vice versa!  Look past the occasionally stiff acting and stilted dialogue that seems to typify such films of the era, and you'll find a film that is just wonderful to watch in widescreen for the first time since its theatrical release.

Video

    It's great to see this film presented on DVD in its original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1. The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    In general, the picture is quite sharp, considering the age of the source material. Only the occasional insert of stock footage of wildlife is a little softer.

    Shadow detail is somewhat lacking, again due to the age of the source film and perhaps to the location shooting required. Some examples where the shadow detail is lacking include 38:20 and 48:00.

   The transfer is reasonably free of noticeable grain, except when stock footage is used. There is no low level noise apparent.

    Colour is rich and fresh looking for the majority of the film. Some particularly lovely examples include the scenes at 28:00, 36:09, 43:38 and 55:49. However, there are occasional scenes that look somewhat washed out. Again, the stock footage that is used is generally the culprit although there is also some variation in colour rendering between reels, perhaps as a result of using reels of differing origin for the mastering.

    Some of the dissolves between scenes looked a little 'jerky' or broken-up, again probably attributable to the condition of the original film.

    Edge enhancement is used quite extensively but not to an extent that becomes overwhelming. Aliasing was noticeable in the wire mesh door at 29:00 and in the zebra skin wall hanging at 30:25.

    There were occasional negative film artefacts in the form of white specks, but these were not too bad considering the age of the source material. These artefacts were more apparent in some parts of the film, perhaps due to the varying condition of the various source reels.

    There was some telecine wobble apparent at 49:25 and 51:30 when the frame jumps about a little.

    The subtitles are offered in English only and are a little strange looking as they are white text on a black background. They were, however, accurate and were positioned on screen so as to be below the character whose voice they represented at any given time.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The single audio track on this disk is in English Dolby Digital 2.0, although sadly it's actually very much mono. The original film was recorded with 70mm 6-track audio so it would have been great had the DVD been provided with at least a Dolby Surround soundtrack, especially for the music.

    The dialogue is clear at all times and in sync with the actors' lips. There was no distortion even with the very loud effects such as gunshots, shouts or lion roars. However, some effects did sound somewhat phoney or echoey, such as the roars of the lions fighting at 82:30.

    The music is by one of the greatest composers for the cinema, John Barry (Goldfinger, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves). As mentioned earlier, Barry won 2 Oscars for his music in Born Free. The main title theme, which actually closes the film, was sung by Matt Munro, and is of course known by just about everyone  This fantastic theme is reflected in much of the incidental music throughout the film in various forms. It variously appears tranquil, playful or majestic depending on the scene. Some of the music, particularly in dramatic or tense moments, strongly echoes incidental music from Barry's 007 scores, such as Thunderball or You Only Live Twice. I really wish there was an isolated music score on this disc!

    This being a mono soundtrack, the rear surrounds were not used at all.

    The subwoofer was called on to support some lion roars and of course the music when required.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailers

• Running Free (2:08). This film is not part of the Born Free series, but is actually about a horse.
• Stuart Little 1 (2:22)
• Stuart Little 2 (2:21)
• Born Free (0:58)
• Living Free (3:01) - the follow up to Born Free.

    All trailers are 16x9 enhanced but in various screen ratios. Anyone spot the 'theme' running through all these trailers?

    This R4 release actually combines two films on a single disc; Born Free and the follow up, Living Free.

    The R1 release is slightly different. There are 2 separate versions of Born Free on DVD, a fullscreen (pan and scan) version, and a widescreen 16x9 enhanced version.

    There are no additional extras on either R1 version, so unless you are keen on the fullscreen version, the R4 is definitely the better choice.

    A superb film which stands the test of time very well. This film will entertain families of all ages, especially those getting bored or jaded with the endless stream of animated or CGI movies which, as good as they are, get a little too much after a while. Sit back and take in the splendour of the African scenery and wildlife, especially the undeniable charm of the lions (particularly in their younger phase), and enjoy a comparatively simple, almost documentary-like story with wonderful music.

    The film has been pretty well restored for this DVD release which is thankfully in its original theatrical ratio.

    The picture, in the main, looks far fresher than one would expect given the age of the film. The audio has that slightly strident mono feel of lower-budget films of that era, though it's still quite fine. The extras are, sadly, limited to a few trailers for other animal-related films. The producers of the DVD could have left out the Living Free film and instead included documentaries on Joy Adamson or her work in African wildlife protection. They should have also provided an isolated music score as the complete original soundtrack is nigh on impossible to find these days.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall