Few real-world scenarios test the maxim, “The ends justify the means,” like the story of Dian Fossey. She is the person most responsible for rescuing the mountain gorilla from the edge of extinction. Fossey’s conservation efforts practically ended gorilla poaching, leading to dramatic population growth. How did she do it? Oh, just by dressing as an evil witch, capturing poachers, torturing them (including allegedly using stinging nettles on a man’s genitals), and holding their children for ransom. #Girlboss!
It’s an interesting philosophical case study. It’s also the basis for the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist. Directed by Michael Apted and starring Sigourney Weaver as Dian Fossey, it has three things any good movie needs: a competent director, a skilled leading actress, and an attention-grabbing premise. Based on this information, anyone would expect this to be good. And they would be mistaken.
This is not a horrible film: the cinematography is fine, Maurice Jarre’s score is effective, and Weaver is excellent as Fossey. It’s technically proficient and well-performed. But it suffers from a messy story and poorly realized characters, including Fossey herself.
The trouble begins within the first few minutes. Fossey attends a natural history lecture by Dr. Louis Leakey (Iain Cuthbertson). Afterwards, Fossey talks to Leakey about a research position in the Congo, which she wrote six letters to him about, surveying mountain gorillas. After much begging, Leakey agrees to let her try. It’s never made clear why she so desperately wants this position. Thus, her drastic actions later on lack the dramatic tension they should have.
Over a third into the movie, Fossey meets National Geographic photographer Bob Campbell (Bryan Brown). Within twenty minutes, the characters have inexplicably fallen in love with each other; Fossey cheats on her fiancee — who seems only to exist as a plot point — and Campbell cheats on his wife. It’s confusing and contrived. Though there are hints of this affair’s relevance to the story of Fossey, the implementation is so poor that it doesn’t matter.
Dian’s tracker, Sembagare (John Omirah Miluwi), is among the most important characters in the first half of the film, but there’s a significant section mid-movie where he does almost nothing. He’s there, but he might as well be a background extra. And it’s worse with Dr. Leakey. Past the first fifteen minutes, he’s never on-screen again. Excluding some voice-overs of his letters to Fossey, the next time his whereabouts are mentioned is towards the end.
These examples illustrate the movie’s biggest problem: it isn’t detailed enough. Fossey’s motivations are rarely clear, other important characters aren’t fully developed, and the ethics of Fossey’s controversial actions go largely unexplored. Filling these gaps would have made for both a better film and a more complete, nuanced portrait of Fossey and her mission.
The real story of Dian Fossey is almost certainly more riveting than this movie. Gorillas in the Mist gives the audience enough to whet their curiosity, just not enough to satisfy it. Great apes, but a not-so-great film.
