To Walk With Lions
Encyclopedia
To Walk with Lions is a 1999 film
starring Richard Harris
as George Adamson
and John Michie
as Tony Fitzjohn
.
Adamson spends the latter part of his life protecting the lions and other wildlife in the Kora National Reserve, Kenya
. He encounters poachers and government corruption blocking his quest for wildlife preservation.
). On the first day Fitzjohn goes against George’s advice and is nearly mauled by a lion. Being informed this is how the last person to fill his position came to be killed, he writes the whole place off as crazy and decides to leave. With a last minute change of heart, and a lion cub brought in from a zoo for him to train and reintroduce into the wild he soon discovers his life’s true calling.
Years pass and Kora’s lions are being picked off by herdsmen one by one with bullets and poison and the elephants and rhinos are being poached at an alarming rate for their tusks and horns. The Adamson brothers are expending all of their energies in protecting the wildlife but can hardly compete; as Fitzjohn observes “A ranger may make 800 shillings a month but a poacher will pay him 10,000 just to turn his back for a day”. The odds seem to be insurmountable as the poachers pile in and the animal death toll rises while the local government decides that it doesn’t really want a wildlife preserve at all.
1999 in film
The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...
starring Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
as George Adamson
George Adamson
George Adamson , also known as the "Baba ya Simba" , was a British wildlife conservationist and author...
and John Michie
John Michie
John Michie is a Scottish television and film actor, best known for his role as DI Robbie Ross in the STV Scottish detective television series Taggart and for playing Karl Munro in Coronation Street.-Early life:...
as Tony Fitzjohn
Tony Fitzjohn
Anthony Raymond Fitzjohn, OBE is a conservationist who has worked extensively with George Adamson at Kora in Africa.Tony Fitzjohn was adopted as a baby and brought up in north London. His birth mother was a Waaf and his father was a married man in the RAF; it was a wartime liaison. He was awarded a...
.
Adamson spends the latter part of his life protecting the lions and other wildlife in the Kora National Reserve, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
. He encounters poachers and government corruption blocking his quest for wildlife preservation.
Plot
Tony Fitzjohn (John Michie) has just come to work on Kora, a lion preserve, for two elderly brothers, George and Terrence Adamson (Ian BannenIan Bannen
Ian Bannen was a Scottish character actor and occasional leading man.-Early life and career:Bannen was born in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, the son of Clare and John James Bannen, a lawyer. Bannen served in the British Army after attending St Aloysius' College, Glasgow and Ratcliffe College,...
). On the first day Fitzjohn goes against George’s advice and is nearly mauled by a lion. Being informed this is how the last person to fill his position came to be killed, he writes the whole place off as crazy and decides to leave. With a last minute change of heart, and a lion cub brought in from a zoo for him to train and reintroduce into the wild he soon discovers his life’s true calling.
Years pass and Kora’s lions are being picked off by herdsmen one by one with bullets and poison and the elephants and rhinos are being poached at an alarming rate for their tusks and horns. The Adamson brothers are expending all of their energies in protecting the wildlife but can hardly compete; as Fitzjohn observes “A ranger may make 800 shillings a month but a poacher will pay him 10,000 just to turn his back for a day”. The odds seem to be insurmountable as the poachers pile in and the animal death toll rises while the local government decides that it doesn’t really want a wildlife preserve at all.