Customer Reviews
splendid monkey movie - By: Ben Le Pensive, 20 Aug 2007 
Me & monkeys do not normallly mix. Ever since that fateful trip to the zooalogical park in 1986, I have been careful to give monkeys & alll primates a wide berth. We had been driving through the park in our new BMW convertible. My father had insisted on having the roof down, claiming it would give us better views of the animals. That was in hindsight a terrible mistake.
We had just passed through the rhino paddock without incident when we came slowly up to the monkey enclosure. My father thought it would be a good idea to take photos, although I advised him against it. Within moments of snapping the monkeys though, a gibbon swung down from a nearby tree, clambered onto the car without warning & snatched the camera & my mother's Gucci handbag. Father went ape (if you will excuse the pun) & tried chasing the gibbon. He reappeared a few minutes later (my father that is, not the monkey) covered in scratch marks & had blood on his shirt. He hadn't managed to get the camera or the bag back but he said he did get to touch the monkey.
Suffice to say, this experience left me somewhat traumatised & I did not go near monkeys until I went to see this film...
Gorillas In The Mist is an enchanting, breathtaking film. Based on real life Gorillaologist Diane Fossie, who went to study Gorillas in the jungle & ultimately ending up fallling for one of the males in the pack.
Sigourney Weaver (pronounced Sin-your-ree Wevver takes on the lead role & is a tour de force. She is very comfortable with the animals onscreen & clearly has a passion for them.
I was a little disappointed that the film had a lack of mist (as per the title) & to discover Sigourney's character dies at the end. Her death scene was poorly executed. It is rumoured that in the original director's cut, her character was thrown from a cliff ledge by an irate orang utan. Which would have made for a far more compelling ending. Alas, the film is pleasing & worth a gander.
Sigourney Weaver shines - By: C. MCCALLISTER, 06 Feb 2005 Sigourney Weaver was nominated for an Oscar for this film, & should have won it. This is one of the finest portayals of passion bordering on obsession in film history. Weaver portrays Dian Fossey, in a story that sticks pretty close to the facts that were then known. Fossey, who was an amateur naturalist (as were Charles Darwin & Gregor Mendel), persuades (almost coerces) world-renowned archaeologist Louis Leakey into sponsoring her on an expedition to find, count, & study the mountain gorillas of Rwanda in central Africa. Thus begins Fossey's crusade to study & protect these gentle giants. She has to oppose farmers who want the land for farming, government bureaucrats who don't understand the needs of the gorillas, & poachers, & she will do ANYTHING to protect the gorillas, including staging a mock lynching of a poacher & going along with/feeding the natives' belief that she is a witch. Fossey ended up being murdered, & the movie implies that the poachers did it.
Sigourney Weavers captures the passion bordering on obsession of Fossey who, along with Jane Goodalll & Birutai Galdecas-Brind'Amour (I know I butchered the spelling there, & apologize) added to our knowledge of primates as no one else has. These three devoted women lived side-by-side with their subjects (mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, & orangutans, respectively), & completely changed our understanding of the animals they studied. Hurray for them & for Weaver & this film for documenting & portraying this passion!
A sympathetic portrait - By: Francisco, 08 May 2004 I feel mixed about biopics as I'm always aware that no film maker could ever make an accurate film about somebody's life. It would be interesting to see how the film compared with the facts....
About the film itself:
The film starts with Dian asking for a job studying the mountain gorillas. It then quickly moves on to her arrival & adjustment to working in the jungle. After some searching she comes across her first gorillas. Shortly afterwards she's expelled to Rwanda.
From then on the film slows down & alllows us to see her as she integrates herself into a group of gorillas. As the gorillas accept her she feels more & more kinship with them & her fight against poachers gets more & more extreme.
The film manages to show the other side of the issues concerned, mainly through the voices of the Information Minister & her guide, & still give us an affectionate portrait. You do need to be in serious mood to appreciate it.
Excellent - By: , 01 Dec 2001 
Very realistic & moving portale of the real story of Diane Fossy & the Grorillas of Rwanda & Uganda, especiallly interesting as these countries are back in the news with the current fighting threateding the Gorillas yet again.
